Adverse short-term effects of ozone on cardiovascular mortalities modified by season and temperature: a time-series study.

Introduction: Ambient ozone pollution becomes critical in China. Conclusions on the short-term effects of ozone on cardiovascular mortality have been controversial and limited on cause-specific cardiovascular mortalities and their interactions with season and temperature. This research aimed to investigate the short-term effects of ozone and the modifications of season and temperature on cardiovascular mortality.

Crop Production and Security in Ningjin County of the North China Plain.

Stable growth in grain production is a critical challenge to ensure food security in North China Plain (NCP), an area dominated by smallholder farming. Food production and security of NCP largely depend on how smallholders farm their land. This study took Ningjin County of the NCP as an example to describe the characteristics of crop planting structure and the changes in crop production based on household surveys, statistics, various documents, and literature by descriptive statistics, calculation of crop self-sufficiency, and curve fitting, and aimed to reveal crop security and the influencing factors of crop production at the household level.

Carbon Monitor Europe near-real-time daily CO emissions for 27 EU countries and the United Kingdom.

With the urgent need to implement the EU countries pledges and to monitor the effectiveness of Green Deal plan, Monitoring Reporting and Verification tools are needed to track how emissions are changing for all the sectors. Current official inventories only provide annual estimates of national CO emissions with a lag of 1+ year which do not capture the variations of emissions due to recent shocks including COVID lockdowns and economic rebounds, war in Ukraine. Here we present a near-real-time country-level dataset of daily fossil fuel and cement emissions from January 2019 through December 2021 for 27 EU countries and UK, which called Carbon Monitor Europe.

The Reasonableness and Spatial Differences of the Food Consumption Structure of Urban and Rural Residents in China, 2015-2021.

Based on residents' food consumption data from 31 provinces in China from 2015-2021, this study analyzes the deviation in food consumption from nutrition targets and the spatial distribution characteristics of urban and rural residents in China from 2015-2021, and finds that there are irrationalities in the structure of food consumption of Chinese residents as well as regional differences in consumption. The food consumption of Chinese residents deviates from the recommended values of the Chinese Food Guide Pagoda to a certain extent, with large differences between urban and rural areas and provinces. Therefore, a new concept of food security with nutrition as the target should be established to guide residents' food consumption scientifically and rationally, and to adopt focused attention and targeted measures for regions with serious imbalances in food consumption.

Future population exposure to heatwaves in 83 global megacities.

Global warming leads to more frequent and intense heatwaves, putting urban populations at greater risk. Previous related studies considered only surface air temperature or one or two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and were limited to specific regions. Moreover, no research focused on heatwave exposure in highly-populated global megacities facing severe threats.

Sensitivity of endemic behaviour of COVID-19 under a multi-dose vaccination regime, to various biological parameters and control variables.

For an infectious disease such as COVID-19, we present a new four-stage vaccination model (unvaccinated, dose 1 + 2, booster, repeated boosters), which examines the impact of vaccination coverage, vaccination rate, generation interval, control reproduction number, vaccine efficacies and rates of waning immunity upon the dynamics of infection. We derive a single equation that allows computation of equilibrium prevalence and incidence of infection, given knowledge about these parameters and variable values. Based upon a 20-compartment model, we develop a numerical simulation of the associated differential equations.

Ascertaining priority control pollution sources and target pollutants in toxic metal risk management of a medium-sized industrial city.

Re-suspended surface dust (RSD) often poses higher environmental risks due to its specific physical characteristics. To ascertain the priority pollution sources and pollutants for the risk control of toxic metals (TMs) in RSD of medium-sized industrial cities, this study took Baotou City, a representative medium-sized industrial city in North China, as an example to systematically study TMs pollution in RSD. The levels of Cr (242.

Mechanisms of lead uptake and accumulation in wheat grains based on atmospheric deposition-soil sources.

Lead (Pb) accumulation in wheat grains depends on two aspects: i) Pb uptake by the roots and shoots, and ii) the translocation of organ Pb into the grain. However, the underlying mechanism of the uptake and transport of Pb in wheat remains unclear. This study explored this mechanism by establishing field leaf-cutting comparison treatments.

The start of frozen dates over northern permafrost regions with the changing climate.

The soil freeze-thaw cycle in the permafrost regions has a significant impact on regional surface energy and water balance. Although increasing efforts have been made to understand the responses of spring thawing to climate change, the mechanisms controlling the global interannual variability of the start date of permafrost frozen (SOF) remain unclear. Using long-term SOF from the combinations of multiple satellite microwave sensors between 1979 and 2020, and analytical techniques, including partial correlation, ridge regression, path analysis, and machine learning, we explored the responses of SOF to multiple climate change factors, including warming (surface and air temperature), start date of permafrost thawing (SOT), soil properties (soil temperature and volume of water), and the snow depth water equivalent (SDWE).

Selenium and Zinc Intakes of Staple Grains and Their Correlation with Urine Selenium and Zinc in the Tibetan Rural Residents along the Yarlung Zangbo River.

Grains account for a large proportion of the diet of rural residents in Tibet. The lack of selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn) threatens the population's nutrition and health. However, the intakes of selenium and zinc in grains remains unclear.

Characteristics, sources and influencing factors of atmospheric deposition of microplastics in three different ecosystems of Beijing, China.

As the research on microplastics (MPs) has intensified, more attention has been paid to MPs deposition in the atmosphere. This study further explores and compares the characteristics, the possible sources and influencing factors of deposition of MPs in three different ecosystems: forest, agricultural and residential area in Beijing. It was found that the deposited plastics were mostly white or black fibres, with PET and RY as the main MPs types.

Increasing temperature regulates the advance of peak photosynthesis timing in the boreal ecosystem.

The shift in vegetation phenology is an essential indicator of global climate change. Numerous researches based on reflectance-based vegetation index data have explored the changes in the start (SOS) and end (EOS) of vegetation life events at long time scales, while a huge discrepancy existed between the phenological metrics of vegetation structure and function. The peak photosynthesis timing (PPT), which is crucial in regulating terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance, has not received much attention.

Leaching characteristics and potential risk of heavy metals from drip irrigation pipes and mulch substrate in agricultural ecosystems.

Drip irrigation is a valuable method for optimising water and fertiliser usage, motivating its increasing use. However, the ecological effects of drip irrigation fertilisation have not been sufficiently evaluated, limiting its effective and widespread use. Within this context, we aimed to determine the effects and potential ecological risks of using polyethylene irrigation pipes and mulch substrate under various drip irrigation conditions as well as burning of waste pipes and mulch substrate.

Prenatal exposure to particulate matter and term low birth weight: systematic review and meta-analysis.

To evaluate the relationships between maternal particulate matter exposure and offspring birth weight. Studies were categorized into three subgroups: term low birth weight (TLBW) among full-term births and all births (regardless of gestational age) and low birth weight (LBW) among all births, based on the search results of MEDLINE and the Web of Science from the inception of the database to April 2022. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on the economic status, region, exposure assessment, risk of bias, and adjustment.

Amount and characteristics of microplastic and organic matter in wind-blown sediment at different heights within the aeolian sand saltation layer.

Soils of croplands especially where plastic film mulch is commonly applied, are normally contaminated by Microplastics (MPs). Microplastics can threaten air quality, food and water health, as well as human health by wind erosion processes. In this research, we investigated MPs collected in four wind erosion events at sampling heights between 0 and 60 cm in typical semiarid farmlands in northern China that employ plastic film mulch.

Human capital space: a spatial perspective of the dynamics of people and economic relationships.

While researchers increasingly recognise drastic changes in populations and repeatedly emphasise their implications for development, far less attention is devoted to thinking of and making spaces available for people. This article proposes the concept of human capital space (HCS) and elaborates on its typology, spatial externalities, selection-sorting-matching mechanism, and crucial role in building dynamic capabilities in cities and regions. Theoretical discourses and constructs furnish reasons to believe that HCS is a useful instrument to examine the complex people-space relationship and to encourage conversations about the interactions among population, labour, economic geographies, and related disciplines.

Potentially toxic elements in surface fine dust of residence communities in valley industrial cities.

A comprehensive analysis of content, pollution characteristics, health hazard, distribution, and source of some broadly concerned potentially toxic elements (PTEs, Pb, V, Mn, Cr, Ba, Zn, Ni, and Cu) in surface fine dust with particle size <63 μm (SFD63) from residence communities in Xi'an, a representative valley industrial city, was conducted in this research to analyze the quality of environment and influencing factors of valley industrial cities in China. The average contents of Ba (794.1 mg kg), Cu (61.

Unexpected no significant soil carbon losses in the Tibetan grasslands due to rodent bioturbation.

The Tibetan grasslands store 2.5% of the Earth's soil organic carbon. Unsound management practices and climate change have resulted in widespread grassland degradation, providing open habitats for rodent activities.

Assessment of Multiple Ecosystem Services and Ecological Security Pattern in Shanxi Province, China.

The ecological security pattern construction could effectively regulate ecological processes and ensure ecological functions, then rationally allocate natural resources and green infrastructure, and, finally, realize ecological security. In view of serious soil erosion, accelerated land desertification, soil pollution and habitat degradation in Shanxi Province, the spatial distribution of six key ecosystem services, including water conservation (WC), soil conservation (SC), sand fixation (SF), carbon storage (CS), net primary productivity (NPP) and habitat quality (HQ), was analyzed by using multiple models. The comprehensive ability of multiple ecosystem services in different regions was quantified by calculating multiple ecosystem services landscape index (MESLI).

Spatiotemporal Changes in Frost-Free Season and Its Influence on Spring Wheat Potential Yield on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 1978 to 2017.

Accurately assessing the variation in the frost-free season (FFS) can provide decision support for improving agricultural adaptability and reducing frost harm; however, related studies were inadequate in terms of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). This study analyzed the spatiotemporal changes in the first frost day in autumn (FFA), last frost day in spring (LFS), FFS length and effective accumulated temperature (EAT) during the 1978-2017 period, and their influences on spring wheat potential yield on the QTP, based on daily climatic data and the methodology of Sen's slope and correlation analysis. The results showed that the annual average FFA and LFS occurred later and earlier from northwest to southeast, respectively, and both the FFS length and EAT increased.

Monitoring Multi-Scale Ecological Change and Its Potential Drivers in the Economic Zone of the Tianshan Mountains' Northern Slopes, Xinjiang, China.

Accurately capturing the changing patterns of ecological quality in the urban agglomeration on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains (UANSTM) and researching its significant impacts responds to the requirements of high-quality sustainable urban development. In this study, the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) were obtained by normalization and PCA transformation of four basic indicators based on Landsat images. It then employed geographic detectors to analyze the factors that influence ecological change.

An evaluation of topsoil carbon storage in Chinese deserts.

Deserts are important components of the terrestrial ecosystem, and significantly affect the terrestrial carbon cycle. However, their carbon storage is poorly understood. To evaluate the topsoil carbon storage in Chinese deserts, we systematically collected topsoil samples (to a depth of 10 cm) from 12 deserts in northern China and analyzed their organic carbon storage.

Wind erosion induced low-density microplastics migration at landscape scale in a semi-arid region of northern China.

Microplastics (MPs) have been extensively investigated in terrestrial environments, while the occurrence and movement of MPs at the landscape scale in semi-arid regions with serious wind erosion are less well studied. Here, we sampled film mulching farmland and downwind nearby grassland surface soils in a semi-arid region of northern China to explore the distribution of MPs at different downwind distances and the potential environmental risk to the local landscapes. The results revealed that the MP abundances presented a decreasing trend with increasing downwind distance (Mann-Kendall test, P < 0.