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The cooling effect of greenspaces is an important ecosystem service, essential for mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) effect and thus increasing urban resilience to climate change. Techniques based on landscape planning to alleviate the increasing frequency of extreme climate are becoming more of a focus in urban ecology studies. In this paper, we proposed and defined the urban cooling island (UCI) extent, intensity, and efficiency, as well as the threshold value of efficiency (TVoE) introduced from the “law of diminishing marginal utility” for the first time. The radiative transfer equation has been compared with other algorithms and used to retrieve accurate land surface temperature (LST) in a subtropical city of China − Fuzhou. Two important and arguable factor − size and shape of greenspaces also been expressed and explored. The results indicate that: (1) larger-sized greenspaces produce a higher cooling effect. However, there exist a TVoE, which is in line with our hypothesis. The TVoE in Fuzhou is 4.55 ha. (2) The circles and squares greenspaces have a significant correlation with LST and also show the highest UCI intensity and efficiency. (3) 92% of the maximum extent of greenspaces are within the 30–180 m limit, and the mean UCI extent and intensity are 104 m and 1.78 °C. (4) The greenspaces connected with waterbodies intensified the UCI effects, whereas the grassland-based greenspace shows the weakest UCI effects. The methodology and results of this study could help urban planners to mitigate the UHI effects efficiently, and to employ the climate adaptive planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the study `Genetic analysis of hemoglobin levels in two high-altitude Tibetan populations,' by J. Blangero S. Williams-Blangero and C.M. Beall. High hemoglobin levels as an adaptation to the hypoxic high-altitude environment; Genetic analysis of hemoglobin variation in Lhasa, Tibet.

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the influence of geography on ethnic division by drawing evidence from Tibetan ethnic regions in China. Using a novel township name index that identifies the ethnolinguistic origin of each township name, our empirical findings first show that regions with Han Chinese settlement in the past also witness higher concentration of Han population today. We also show that townships located at higher altitudes have less Han concentration. This altitude effect can be both indirect and direct; we find that the indirect effect through historical settlement is small compared to the direct physiological effect through altitude illness. The challenging environment of the plateau region acts as a physiological hindrance only for Han Chinese, and the natural separation continues to persist between the two groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To learn the historical response of cropping system to climate change will benefit the strategy decision of future cropping adaptation. In this paper, we conducted an integrated analysis of the climate records of seventy-two meteorological stations and the records of crop yields over the period 1970–2009 in Northeast China. It was found that over these forty years, the daily mean, maximum and minimum temperatures during crop growing season increased on average by 0.34°C, 0.28°C, 0.43°C every ten years, respectively. No significant change in the precipitation was found, although the differences between years were large. After de-trending the agronomic technique contributions to the increments of crop yields, the historical warming had led to great annually increments of 16.6kgha−1, 15.5kgha−1 and 3.2kgha−1 in rice, corn and soybean yields, respectively. According to the historical warming level, present cropping boundaries can be theoretically extended northward about 80km with a prolonged growing period by 10 days compared to the 1970s. Actually, the growth durations of newly approved varieties of rice, corn and soybean have really prolonged by 14.0 days, 7.0 days and 2.7 days since the 1950s, respectively. The actual growing periods of rice and corn have also respectively prolonged by 6 days and 4 days due to the adjustment of sown and harvest dates by the farmer since 1990s. The existing rice cropping region has been extended northward 80km in the 2006 compared to the 1970. These actual responses were consistent with the theoretical calculation according to the historical warming trends. Our results demonstrate that cropping system owns the potential to progressively and actively adapt to the global warming for high yield through a comprehensive strategy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses research on genes involved in hypoxia adaptation among indigenous residents of high-altitude plateaus of Central Asia, the Andes, and Tibet. Referenced research includes papers by Simonson et al. and Yi et al. elsewhere in the issue and a paper by C.M. Beall et al. in a 2010 issue of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A." These papers are said to indicate that hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) genes in the oxygen signaling pathway are strongly selected in the genetics of Tibetan highlanders. The article discusses the use of screening of genome-wide DNA sequence variations (polymorphisms) to resolve the contributions of chromosomal regions to high-altitude adaptation.