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We estimate the relationship between high‐temperature exposure and land transaction using daily transaction data from 2013 to 2018 in China. Standard hedonic price method is used to perform multidimensional fixed effects regression on 458,564 transaction samples. This study shows that each additional day of the extremely high temperature increases the average bid price by 0.6%, which is equivalent to an additional annual increase of 15.018 billion yuan in land transaction costs. The effect of high temperature on land prices is considerably stronger for residential and commercial lands. We further find that high‐temperature‐induced changes of mood and cognition play a role. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm is used to calculate price deviation, which overcome missing eigenvalues and reduce nonlinear measurement error. Our findings indicate that heat can make investors more aggressive, which occurs when bidders continue to raise prices to win. The number of bidding behavior will not drop due to the hidden costs of land transactions. Specially, bidding experience offsets the cognitive output bias. This study contributes to the behavioral finance and decision‐making literature, helps investors make better investment management decisions, and alleviates the negative effect of land transaction premium on the real estate market. Plain Language Summary: Extreme temperatures are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Extreme temperature can affect people's cognitive performance. Using large‐scale land transaction data and a fixed‐effects model, this paper analyzes the impact of extreme temperature on decision‐making. Results show that each additional day of extremely high temperature increases the average bid price by 0.6%, which is equivalent to an additional annual increase of 15.018 billion yuan in land transaction costs. This paper analyzes the impact of extreme temperature on human cognitive performance from the perspective of e climate change and uses land transaction behavior as a measure of decision‐making to reveal the mechanism of climate change affecting cognitive performance. Key Points: Each additional day of the extremely high temperature increases the average bid price by 0.6%Heat can make investors more aggressive, which occurs when bidders continue to raise prices to winBidding experience offsets the cognitive output bias [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only with the three largest emitters (the EU, China and the US) building a coalition was it possible to conclude the Paris Agreement in 2015. With the announced withdrawal of the US, the interdependence between the EU and China has increased significantly. Both actors have reiterated their will to implement the Paris Agreement and to cooperate on climate change. In times of political constraints between the EU and China, this seems puzzling. The paper takes a role‐theoretic perspective to assess the following question: How can the changing roles of the EU and China, ascribed to them by external and internal expectations, explain their increased climate cooperation? It draws on a qualitative text analysis of policy documents and expert interviews. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings against the backdrop of growing tensions between the EU and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separating existing historical precipitation data into solid and liquid precipitation remains a challenge in the study of climate change, extreme precipitation, and hydrological modelling. Based on historical daily air temperature and precipitation data, as well as visual observations of precipitation phase (weather phenomena records) in China mainland, this study proposed a snow‐day direct definition method (SDDM) to determine the threshold air temperature (TAT) of rainfall and snowfall, and analysed the spatial pattern and its influential factors. The main findings include: (1) the TAT based on the SDDM varied from −1.2 to 6.3°C, with a mean value of 2.8°C for the entire study region; (2) TAT was generally higher and more variable in the low‐latitude areas, and the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau was characterized by an abnormally high average TAT of 5.2°C, almost twice as large as that of the eastern monsoon region; (3) TAT exhibited a significant positive correlation with altitude and negative correlation with precipitation and relative humidity. The results presented in this paper have potential application for studies of large‐scale snowfall climatology and climate change, weather forecasting techniques, and hydrological model parameterization in areas with complex and diverse geographical and climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of Chinese firms' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on their financial constraint and financing activities. We find a negative association between firms' ESG performance and their financial constraint driven by the Chinese government's commitment to tackling climate change. Compared with state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), non‐SOEs have alleviated their financial constraint through both equity and debt issuance, thanks to the stock price appreciation and green credit. High‐pollution firms benefit from both equity and debt issuance, while low‐pollution firms mainly finance through equity issuance. Our findings demonstrate the leading role of the Chinese government in its domestic capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis is presented of the precipitation bias and change signal in an ensemble of regional climate model (RCM) (RegCM4) projections driven by multiple general circulation models (GCMs) over China. RegCM4 is driven by five different GCMs for the 120‐year period 1979–2099 at 25 km grid spacing, under the representative concentration pathway RCP8.5. We find that the GCMs and RegCM4 reproduce the general spatial pattern of precipitation over China in all four seasons, with RegCM4 providing greater spatial detail, especially over areas with complex terrain. The spatial patterns of precipitation bias show common features between the GCMs and RegCM4, characterized by an underestimation in the wetter regions, and an overestimation in the drier ones. Systematic increases of precipitation are projected in northern China, most pronounced in the Northwest basins, by both the GCMs and RegCM4 in all seasons except summer, when more mixed results are found. In addition, weak correlations of the projected change patterns are found in summer between the GCMs and nested RegCM4, indicating the greater role played by the representation of local convection processes during this monsoon season. The projections across the RegCM4 experiments show higher consistency and lower spread compared to the GCM ensemble, again indicating that the nested model physics significantly modulates the change signal deriving from the GCM boundary forcing. Plain Language Summary: China is a vulnerable country to climate change due to its dense population, unbalanced social and economic development, shortage of water resources, and fragile ecosystems. How future precipitation will change over the region is of great concern for the general public and decision makers. This paper presents a first analysis of precipitation simulations from a set of five RCM (RegCM4) 21st century climate change projections, driven by coarse resolution general circulation models (GCMs) over China. We find that the spatial patterns of precipitation bias show common features between the GCMs and RegCM4, characterized by a precipitation underestimation in the wetter regions, and an overestimation in the drier ones. Systematic increases of precipitation are projected in north China by both the GCMs and RegCM4 in all seasons except summer, when, weak correlations of the projected change patterns are found between the GCMs and nested RegCM4, indicating the greater role of the representation of local convection processes during this monsoon season. The projections across the RegCM4 experiments show higher consistency and lower spread compared to the GCM ensemble, again indicating that the nested model physics significantly modulates the change signal deriving from the GCM boundary forcing. Key Points: The spatial patterns of bias show common features between the GCMs and RegCM4RegCM4 provides greater spatial detail of present day precipitation simulation compared to the GCMs and finer structures of future changesThe change patterns across the RegCM4 projections show a high correlation, but not always between each pair of driving GCM and RegCM4 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate is an essential element in agricultural production, and climate change inevitably have an impact on agriculture. Assessing the economic consequences of climate change requires comprehensive assessments of the impact chain from climate to crops and the economy. In our previous study, we derived a dose‐response function to estimate the response of crop yields to climate variables through a systematic review. In this paper, a dynamic multiregional input‐output model is established to assess the economic consequences of changes in agricultural production on China's regional and sectoral levels. The results show that (1) the direct economic damage is equivalent to 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) which implies the resulting economic cascade effect (ECE) that amounts to 17.8% of China's GDP. At the end of 21st century, the ECE is −0.1% to 13.6% of GDP (negative values indicate economic gains) without considering CO2 fertilization effect, of which the ECE in the most pessimistic pathway are equivalent to the total agricultural output in China today. (2) Regional‐level results show an uneven distribution of economic impact in China, which is related to the regional economic development. The least developed region in China experiences 2.8 to 8.5 times more ECE caused by climate change than the most developed region. (3) Sector‐level results show that agriculture is still the main affected sector, but in developed regions, manufacturing and services also bear part of the ECE. Plain Language Summary: Evidence from numerous studies has confirmed the impact of climate change on agriculture. This paper assesses the economic consequences of changes in agricultural production under climate change in China. We find that the direct economic damage is equivalent to 1% of gross domestic product which implies the resulting economic cascade effect that amounts to 17.8% of total gross domestic product. The most pessimistic estimate of the economic impacts in the 2090s is equivalent to China's total agricultural output today without considering CO2 fertilization effect of climate change. The economic impacts suffered by different regions of China are related to regional economic development. The least developed region in China experiences more economic damage from climate change than the most developed region. In addition to the agricultural sector, manufacturing and services are expected to experience part of the impacts, especially in developed regions. This paper hopes to provide data support for a comprehensive understanding of climate change impacts in different regions of China by assessing the economic consequences. Key Points: The economic cascading effect of climate change is approximately 18 times larger than its direct damageThe least developed region in China experiences 2.8 to 8.5 times more economic impacts than the most developed regionThe decline in agricultural output also affects manufacturing and services through trade networks, especially in developed regions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the current literature on public responses to climate change in China. The paper first provides a "macro view" by reviewing what we know about public climate change knowledge, risk perceptions, policy preferences, and behaviors based on large‐scale survey research. The paper also examines what sociodemographic, psychological, and cultural variables – such as age, gender, rural/urban status, and income – can best predict public understanding and responses to climate change. Second, it provides a "micro view" by presenting findings from place‐based and contextualized research projects in China. The review concludes by suggesting next steps to advance the understanding of public engagement with climate change in China. This article is categorized under:Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco-cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards 'green capitalism'. It argues for a critical engagement with new-build eco-city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco-cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change: the citizens of the world's least wealthy states. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco-city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco-cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and 'green grabbing'. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on the multiplication of workers' geographies in and around these 'emerald cities', especially the ordinary urban spaces and lives of the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In 2015, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all member states of the United Nations. This paper argues that actually implementing the SDGs is far more challenging than reaching agreement to adopt them. To overcome these challenges, a Four‐Step Adaptive Governance Framework was set up to facilitate implementation of these goals. Two‐level policy tools are presented to illustrate the policy evolution of China's development transitions, within the framework of “adaptive governance.” This study found that the Four‐Step Adaptive Governance Approach is deeply embedded in China's policy process, and it has contributed significantly to China's development during the past four decades. The Adaptive Governance Framework and this example of its application in China suggests it could be a useful tool for developing countries that are formulating their national strategies to achieve their SDGs by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the biggest carbon emitter in the world, China is facing tremendous pressure domestically and internationally. To promote the international efforts to tackle climate change, the Chinese government announced its 2020 carbon intensity target and is actively taking part in the international climate negotiations. In this paper, we review some of the climate burden-sharing proposals raised by Chinese scholars to shed some light on China's perspective on the post-Kyoto climate architecture. Then we summarize China's current pollution abatement policies and measures, and analyze some potential policy instruments for China to reconcile its future economic growth and carbon mitigation, as well as some practical design and enforcement issues to be considered for the near term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cryogenian is a critical period in the history of the Earth. It is marked by multiple extreme climate changes that caused alternating global glacial and interglacial intervals. These dramatically changed the sedimentary system, and metal ores and source rocks distributed widely during this period. Therefore, studying the Cryogenian stratigraphic framework and sedimentary basins is important to improve the stratigraphic resolution for metal mineral and hydrocarbon prospecting and exploration in China. This review paper firstly divides three tectonic‐stratigraphic regions in China in the Cryogenian, including the tectonic‐stratigraphic regions of Great South China, Xingmeng‐Tarim, and North China. Secondly, geochronologic data and geological records are combined to clearly depict the Cryogenian sedimentary sequence of continental blocks and micro‐continental blocks in different tectonic‐stratigraphic regions. The results were used to propose a new comparison scheme of stratigraphy for the Cryogenian in China. Finally, according to differences of sedimentary evolution and tectonic evolvement, sedimentary basins and their lithofacies paleogeography are identified and summarized, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the carbon budget in rice paddy ecosystems is fundamental to understanding the role of paddy fields as carbon sinks or sources and to mitigating global climate change. This study used a process‐based model of the denitrification‐decomposition (DNDC) model to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon sinks in the paddy ecosystem across China. The simulation results showed that the GHG emissions were 0.147 Pg C‐equivalent year−1 and that the carbon sequestration in rice plants and soils reached 0.253 Pg C year−1 in 2016, indicating high carbon sequestration potential of the Chinese paddy ecosystem. Land management had a great influence on carbon budgets, among which straw residue incorporation rate and nitrogen fertilizer applications had a stronger influence on carbon budgets, particularly for double cropping rice. These results indicate that appropriate tillage practices can reduce GHG emissions and increase carbon sequestration of rice ecosystems while ensuring rice yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desertification is among the most severe global environmental and the socio-economic problems in the world. This paper is a first attempt to link scientific research to national policymaking on desertification in China. We aim to trace scientific research findings in the national policies and strategies of desertification prevention in China. One example is the large-scale plantation programme in the dust source region threatening Beijing and Tianjin since 1998. It has been suggested that the recent increased forest cover due to plantations in North China has helped reduce dust storm emissions and contributed to mitigating dust storm weather in Beijing and Tianjin. Reforestation/afforestation policy remains in the Chinese national environmental strategies for the new national forestation programme (2011-2020). Overgrazing during recent decades has been blamed for land degradation and desertification in Northwest China by many scholars. Small field experiments prove that vegetation in desertified/degraded land could recover if isolated from human activities. Since 1998, natural recovery has become one powerful national force to prevent land desertification and recover natural vegetation. One example is selected at Cele County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to showcase how vegetation could thrive at large scale in natural arid and semi-arid climate if isolated from human intervention. The plantation project has pushed the stakeholders to better understand their negative impact on the environment, especially the overgrazing behaviour. After that, the household income and living level have also been significantly enhanced; however, it is not clear whether the project induced labour migration. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The biases in the Global Circulation Models ( GCMs) are crucial for understanding future climate changes. Currently, most bias correction methodologies suffer from the assumption that model bias is stationary. This paper provides a non-stationary bias correction model, termed residual-based bagging tree ( RBT) model, to reduce simulation biases and to quantify the contributions of single models. Specifically, the proposed model estimates the residuals between individual models and observations, and takes the differences between observations and the ensemble mean into consideration during the model training process. A case study is conducted for 10 major river basins in Mainland China during different seasons. Results show that the proposed model is capable of providing accurate and stable predictions while including the non-stationarities into the modelling framework. Significant reductions in both bias and root mean squared error are achieved with the proposed RBT model, especially for the central and western parts of China. The proposed RBT model has consistently better performance in reducing biases when compared with the raw ensemble mean, the ensemble mean with simple additive bias correction, and the single best model for different seasons. Furthermore, the contribution of each single GCM in reducing the overall bias is quantified. The single model importance varies between 3.1% and 7.2%. For different future scenarios ( RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5), the results from RBT model suggest temperature increases of 1.44, 2.59, and 4.71 °C by the end of the century, respectively, when compared with the average temperature during 1970-1999. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Xinhai revolution, China faced contending domestic identities, and its roles within the international order were assigned by external powers. In the 100 years that have followed, China's internal competing identities have become more stable and it now faces major challenges in reconciling its contending international identities. China's current ascendency returns it to a position of directing the international order, which resembles its position before the Xinhai revolution. As China changes international identities and gradually moves from being a developing state to a great power, it creates uncertainty among other states. In order for China's rise to continue, it needs to prevent this uncertainty from becoming conflict: it needs a stable international environment. This paper argues that by adopting a view of China's rise as a series of shifts in its identity, the scepter of conflict can be reduced because the uncertainty that is being created can be understood as well as contribute understanding about international behavior. This paper looks at the roles and identities displayed by China at the UN Climate Change conferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmopolitanism is the focus of much current debate. This literature, however, is marked by a relative paucity of detailed research that examines the impact of cosmopolitanism as a social force within different societies. In particular, two topics that have received little attention despite their utter importance for current global challenges are the scale and impact of cosmopolitanism in China and the significance of ‘cosmopolitan innovation’. This paper explores both on the basis of evidence from over 70 interviews with parties involved in low-carbon innovation, a field that may be considered to be particularly propitious for cosmopolitan motivation. We argue that there is distinct evidence of cosmopolitanism in China but that this is a relatively fragile and elite development, despite China's increasingly deep integration into global networks and flows. Furthermore, the cosmopolitanism in evidence is a distinctly Chinese version, thereby offering important lessons regarding the nature of cosmopolitanism per se and the reciprocal challenge of China to the existing cosmopolitanism of the global North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiring freshwater resources is a necessary component of sustainable human settlement subject to increasing pressure from population and climate changes. This sometimes scarce resource primarily comes from rivers, and international river basins ( IRBs), where watersheds and watercourses cross political boundaries, are often spaces of great political tension and conflict worldwide. Such conflict potential has garnered interest from a wide range of research communities, and each emphasises public access to hydrologic data as integral to successful international management of IRBs. However; these hydrologic data, especially measurements of river flow rate, are often closely guarded state secrets. Satellites have been cited as a key technology set to challenge this data monopoly that have yet been unable to calculate river flow rate without some form of guarded ancillary data. Now, at-many-stations hydraulic geometry ( AMHG) offers a means of circumventing data limitations without any a priori information, and the forthcoming NASA/ CNES Surface Water and Ocean Topography ( SWOT) satellite also promises to estimate flow rates solely from its novel measurements following launch. In this paper, we explore how these newly available estimates of river flow rate could reconfigure water-management and interstate relations in IRBs, and demonstrate AMHG, for two cases: the Ganges- Brahmaputra and Mekong. For these basins we find that satellite flow rate retrievals will likely reinforce and favour state-level negotiations of water resource governance. Also, satellite flow retrievals can have the direct, concrete effect of improving hydrologic understanding of the upstream Ganges- Brahmaputra, a sorely needed advance that will positively benefit millions of Bangladeshis and affect state-level interactions between India, China, and Bangladesh. Finally, we avoid offering prescriptive water management solutions for each case, as local stakeholders will ultimately determine if and how such satellite retrievals will be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a mixed-method approach to investigate smallholder perceptions of climate change in the Loess Plateau region of China. We combine qualitative and quantitative research methods with climate data analysis to gauge the climatic changes smallholders have perceived over the last 30 years, as well as how these changes have been experienced. At two research sites, each method produced markedly different results. Drawing on the work of feminist political ecologists and other geographers, we suggest that the dissonance between data sets generated using different research methods arises because each method produces knowledge that is partial and situated. To explain the contradictions between smallholder perceptions of climate change across the qualitative and quantitative methods and their disagreement with the climate record, we adopt aspects of assemblage theory and the dwelling perspective to suggest that smallholder knowledge of climate change is structured through their observations of and interactions with dynamic, networked socio-natural assemblages. We argue that a better understanding of the conduits through which perceptions and experiences of climate change come into being, and hence how climate knowledge is shaped, is necessary to account for the multiple epistemologies through which climate change is known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of climate change and population growth in recent decades are leading us to consider their combined and potentially extreme consequences, particularly regarding hydrological processes, which can be modeled using a generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution. Most of the GEV models were based on a stationary assumption for hydrological processes, in contrast to the nonstationary reality due to climate change and human activities. In this paper, we present the nonstationary generalized extreme value (NSGEV) distribution and use it to investigate the risk of Niangziguan Springs discharge decreasing to zero. Rather than assuming the location, scale, and shape parameters to be constant as one might do for a stationary GEV distribution analysis, the NSGEV approach can reflect the dynamic processes by defining the GEV parameters　as functions of time. Because most of the GEV model is designed to evaluate maxima (e.g. flooding, represented by positive numbers), and spring discharge cessation is a ‛minima', we deduced an NSGEV model for minima by applying opposite numbers, i.e. negative instead of positive numbers. The results of the model application to Niangziguan Springs showed that the probability of zero discharge at Niangziguan Springs will be 1/80 in 2025, and 1/10 in 2030. After 2025, the rate of decrease in spring discharge will accelerate, and the probability that Niangziguan Springs will cease flowing will dramatically increase. The NSGEV model is a robust method for analysing karst spring discharge. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The Chinese government has announced a national mitigation target towards sustainable development of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit GDP (CO2/GDP) by 40-45% by 2020 compared with the 2005 level. This paper analyses China's CO2 strategic mitigation target and suggests possible ways to reduce CO2/GDP. The mitigation target of reducing CO2 intensity in terms of GDP is ambitious and would greatly reduce CO2 emissions compared with business as usual (BAU) in China. However, it would not prevent an increase in absolute CO2 emissions and therefore a more ambitious target, e.g. a larger reduction goal for CO2/GDP, is still needed. Promoting energy structure by more ambitious economic instruments to increase the proportion of renewable energy and replace coal consumption with oil and gas, and improving energy efficiency by applied advanced technologies, are both necessary measures. Special attention should be given to improving technologies in the manufacturing sector owing to its high energy consumption and low energy use efficiency. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol has not yet materialized, the 2009 Copenhagen meeting underlined the importance of China in international debates on climate and energy. This is based not only on China's current climate emissions, but also on its expected energy use and economic growth. Within China, climate issues have, like environmental pollution more generally, received increasing government and societal attention, but so has energy – topics that relate to one other but also have different priorities and actor interests behind them. However, while climate change has become more prominent, as shown in the targets included in the current five-year plan, its institutional embeddedness in relation to particularly energy issues has received limited attention. This paper aims to help shed some light on how Chinese policies and governance structures on energy, climate and environment have evolved, particularly considering the roles of national and provincial authorities. Administrative structures and policy-making processes turn out to be very complex, with a range of units and bodies at different levels with distinct responsibilities as well as inter-linkages. Moreover, tensions and conflicts can be found regarding climate change and environmental policies on the one hand, and prevailing objectives to further economic development on the other. Energy policies serve the same economic goals, with climate change being most often operationalized in terms of energy conservation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The aims of this paper are to reconstruct the vegetation and fire history over the past 2000 years in a well-preserved rain-forest area, to understand interactions between climate, fire, and vegetation, and to predict how rain forest responds to global warming and increased intensity of human activity. Location Xishuangbanna, south-west China, 21–22° N, 101–102° E. Methods Phytolith (plant opal silica bodies) morphotypes, assemblages, and indices were used to reconstruct palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate changes in detail. Micro-charcoal particles found in phytolith slides, together with burnt phytoliths and highly weathered bulliform cells, were employed to reconstruct a record of past fire occurrence. A survey of field sediments, lithology, and 14C dating were also employed. Results Phytoliths were divided into 11 groups and classified into 33 well-described morphotypes according to their shape under light microscopy and their presumed anatomical origins and ecological significance. The phytolith assemblages were divided into six significant zones that reveal a complete history of vegetation changes corresponding to climate variation and fire occurrence. Phytolith assemblages and indices show that the palaeoclimate in the study area is characterized by the alternation of warm–wet and cool–dry conditions. Phytolith and charcoal records reveal that 12 fire episodes occurred. Comparison of burnt phytoliths with an aridity index (Iph) shows that fire episodes have a strong relationship with drought events. Main conclusions Our results indicate that fire occurrence in the tropical rain forest of Xishuangbanna is predominantly under the control of natural climate variability (drought events). Nearly every fire episode is coupled with a climatic event and has triggered vegetation composition changes marked by a pronounced expansion of grasses. This indicates that drought interacts with fire to exert a strong influence on the ecological dynamics of the rain forest. However, the impact of human activity in recent centuries is also significant. Our results are important for understanding the interactions between climate, fire, and vegetation, and for predicting how rain forest responds to global warming and increased human activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estimation of the size and changes of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks is of great importance for decision makers to adopt proper measures to protect soils and to develop strategies for mitigation of greenhouse gases. In this paper, soil data from the Second State Soil Survey of China (SSSSC) conducted in the early 1980s and data published in the last 5 years were used to estimate the size of SOC stocks over the whole profile and their changes in China in last 20 years. Soils were identified as paddy, upland, forest, grassland or waste-land soils and an improved soil bulk density estimation method was used to estimate missing bulk density data. In the early 1980s, total SOC stocks were estimated at 89.61 Pg (1 Pg=103 Tg=1015 g) in China's 870.94 Mha terrestrial areas covered by 2473 soil series. In the paddy, upland, forest and grassland soils the respective total SOC stocks were 2.91 Pg on 29.87 Mha, 10.07 Pg on 125.89 Mha, 34.23 Pg on 249.32 Mha and 37.71 Pg on 278.51 Mha, respectively. The SOC density of the surface layer ranged from 3.5 Mg ha−1 in Gray Desery grassland soils to 252.6 Mg ha−1 in Mountain Meadow forest soils. The average area-weighted total SOC density in paddy soils (97.6 Mg ha−1) was higher than that in upland soils (80 Mg ha−1). Soils under forest (137.3 Mg ha−1) had a similar average area-weighted total SOC density as those under grassland (135.4 Mg ha−1). The annual estimated SOC accumulation rates in farmland and forest soils in the last 20 years were 23.61 and 11.72 Tg, respectively, leading to increases of 0.472 and 0.234 Pg SOC in farmland and forest areas, respectively. In contrast, SOC under grassland declined by 3.56 Pg due to the grassland degradation over this period. The resulting estimated net SOC loss in China's soils over the last 20 years was 2.86 Pg. The documented SOC accumulation in farmland and forest soils could thus not compensate for the loss of SOC in grassland soils in the last 20 years. There were, however, large regional differences: Soils in China's South and Eastern parts acted mainly as C sinks, increasing their average topsoil SOC by 132 and 145 Tg, respectively. In contrast, in the Northwest, Northeast, Inner Mongolia and Tibet significant losses of 1.38, 0.21, 0.49 and 1.01 Pg of SOC, respectively, were estimated over the last 20 years. These results highlight the importance to take measures to protect grassland and to improve management practices to increase C sequestration in farmland and forest soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

River transport of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to the ocean is a crucial but poorly quantified regional carbon cycle component. Large uncertainties remaining on the riverine DOC export from China, as well as its trend and drivers of change, have challenged the reconciliation between atmosphere‐based and land‐based estimates of China's land carbon sink. Here, we harmonized a large database of riverine in‐situ measurements and applied a random forest model, to quantify riverine DOC fluxes (FDOC) and DOC concentrations (CDOC) in rivers across China. This study proposes the first DOC modeling effort capable of reproducing well the magnitude of riverine CDOC and FDOC, as well as its trends, on a monthly scale and with a much wider spatial distribution over China compared to previous studies that mainly focused on annual‐scale estimates and large rivers. Results show that over the period 2001–2015, the average CDOC was 2.25 ± 0.45 mg/L and average FDOC was 4.04 ± 1.02 Tg/year. Simultaneously, we found a significant increase in FDOC (+0.044 Tg/year2, p =.01), but little change in CDOC (−0.001 mg/L/year, p >.10). Although the trend in CDOC is not significant at the country scale, it is significantly increasing in the Yangtze River Basin and Huaihe River Basin (0.005 and 0.013 mg/L/year, p <.05) while significantly decreasing in the Yellow River Basin and Southwest Rivers Basin (−0.043 and −0.014 mg/L/year, p =.01). Changes in hydrology, play a stronger role than direct impacts of anthropogenic activities in determining the spatio‐temporal variability of FDOC and CDOC across China. However, and in contrast with other basins, the significant increase in CDOC in the Yangtze River Basin and Huaihe River Basin is attributable to direct anthropogenic activities. Given the dominance of hydrology in driving FDOC, the increase in FDOC is likely to continue under the projected increase in river discharge over China resulting from a future wetter climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding future dry and wet changes under global climate change is of great regional significance in China. Based on six Global Climate Models (GCM) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6), we project the changes of dry‐wet climate regions in China in the 21st century under the three SSP‐RCP (shared socioeconomic pathway‐representative concentration pathway) scenarios (SSP1‐2.6, SSP2‐4.5 and SSP5‐8.5), and further identify the key climatic factors that lead to the transition of dry‐wet climate regions. The results show the area of humid and subhumid regions in China will show an upward trend in the future, while the area of semiarid and arid regions will show a downward trend. Especially under the SSP5‐8.5 scenario, the area of the subhumid region has the largest increase trend (0.042% per year), and the area of the arid region has the largest decline trend (−0.048% per year). The three main transfer directions of dry‐wet climate regions are from arid to semiarid regions, from semiarid to subhumid regions, and from subhumid to humid regions in the future. Due to the future extensive wetting trend in the north, the future dry‐wet climate regions will shift to wetter types in Tibet, North China, the Qinling‐Huaihe regions and the northeast. In addition, the key climatic factors for the transition of dry‐wet climate regions are mainly precipitation, maximum temperature and solar radiation. The increase of precipitation plays a dominant role for areas projected to change to wetter types, and the increase of potential evapotranspiration (PET) plays a dominant role for areas projected to change to drier types. The PET changes in changed areas of dry‐wet climate regions are mainly dominated by maximum temperature and solar radiation. Our research has important implications for future water resource management and reconsideration of climate mitigation and adaptation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consecutive extreme wet days (CEWDs) typically affect the likelihood of flooding and landslides and have negative effects on both natural and artificial ecosystems; however, the spatiotemporal changes in their features are still unclear at the national scale. Investigating changes in the frequency and intensity of such events is essential for climate risk management. Here, this study thoroughly analysed CEWD features in China from 1980 to 2020 using the daily observation dataset. We also evaluated and compared the ability of two widely used precipitation products, the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5th Generation (ERA5) and the Multi‐Source Weighted‐Ensemble Precipitation version 2 (MSWEP), to detect CEWD features. According to the observation data, the frequency and intensity of CEWD events are related to local climate and present "high eastern and low western" spatial patterns across China. Since 1980, more than half of China's mainland has experienced increases in both the frequency and intensity of CEWDs. Some stations detected decreasing trends in CEWD frequency and amounts, which are primarily located in the eastern coastal regions and southwest of warm temperate humid/subhumid regions. The ERA5 precipitation product generally outperforms MSWEP data in detecting CEWD events, and the latter significantly underestimates the annual frequency and amounts of CEWDs. These findings provide basic and valuable information regarding CEWD features across China and where such studies can be conducted based on precipitation datasets. Furthermore, these findings will also aid policymakers in managing extreme precipitation‐related natural hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various climatic factors and their interactions affect China's snow depth alterations. However, a measure of the relative importance of climatic factors regarding the variance in snow depth is lacking. Here, we use a heretofore largest dataset, quality‐controlled daily observations from 1,665 meteorological stations, and statistical analyses to identify proxy drivers and their contributions regarding regional variability and trends in China's snow depth and snow depth‐climate relationships from 1951 to 2019. Results show that seasonal snow depth alterations are substantial in China and caused by various climatic drivers. In winter, observed positive trends in the northwest and northeast of China mainly respond to augmentation in solid precipitation and snow accumulation in fall. For the Tibetan Plateau, the negative snow depth anomaly seems to respond to the rising air temperature below the freezing point along with some secular changes in solid precipitation and shallower fall snowpacks. All these trends in winter snow depth over the northwest, northeast, and Tibetan Plateau of China account approximately for 30% of the total interannual variance in spring snow depth in these regions. In the milder central north and south of China, snow accumulation is not evident. Besides solid precipitation and rising air temperature below the freezing point, atmospheric humidity is also notable for its effect on the interannual variance in winter snow depth in these regions. In spring and fall, however, the negative effect of warming climate on snow depth becomes remarkably more important. It seems that about 13–33% (12–50%) of the total interannual variance in the widespread decrease (insignificant perturbation), except for some weak increases in the northeast region (decreases in the Tibetan Plateau), of China's spring (fall) snow depth are caused by the rising air temperature below the freezing point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy sector matters the sustainable development directly and is sensitive to climate change. A few empirical studies concentrate on how climate change influences firm performance. Climate change brings higher production costs and lower efficiency on the supply side and leads to beneficial sale performance and improves profit. However, it is ambiguous to the relationship of supply–demand and revenue‐cost levels, and their change is not consistent. Using panel data of 99 China‐listed firms active in the energy sector over the period 2000–2020, this study aims to identify the causal relation between climate change and the profitability of energy firms while controlling for firm‐specific and energy market‐related factors. The quantile regression results show that temperature deviation (TDEV) positively impacts the profitability of energy firms, and this impact varies at different quantiles of the profitability distribution. These findings remain unchanged by four robustness checks. Moreover, mechanism results indicate that revenue and cost have different interaction effects on the causal relation. The findings of this study can provide forward‐thinking expectations and assess climatic adaptation and risks, particularly inspired stakeholder engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate warming is steadily increasing drought risk in many regions of the world. However, the contribution of warming over the past few decades to drought evolution in China remains unclear. This study used the self‐calibrating Palmer drought severity index (sc‐PDSI) and a detrending experiment to quantify the contribution of warming to severe drought (sc‐PDSI < −3.0) characteristics (intensity, frequency, and duration) over China from 1980 to 2019. Differences in drought characteristics calculated from original and detrended temperature data were attributed to warming effects. The results showed that 93.8% of areas in China have experienced a significant (p <.05) warming trend from 1980 to 2019. Warming remarkably intensified severe drought characteristics across China. Without warming, the extent, frequency, and duration of severe droughts in China would reduce by 2.04%, 2.0%, and 0.82 months. In addition, there are apparent regional differences in the response of severe drought characteristics to warming. Severe drought characteristics in high elevations and high latitudes are more sensitive to warming than in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's surface air temperature is increasing due to global warming, so it is interesting that how low temperatures would be changed during the growth period of winter wheat in future. We focused on the low temperatures of winter wheat from 2021 to 2050, using temperatures under the high emission scenario Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) projected by the RegCM4.4 regional climate model. The results showed that the annual mean temperature was projected to increase by 0.42°C⋅decade−1 in the northern and by 0.35°C⋅decade−1 in the southern winter wheat region. Furthermore, the temperature was expected to increase rapidly in spring, which could advance the dates of flowering and the start of the grain‐filling period. Using the genetic parameters determined by the calibration and validation of WOFOST and bias‐corrected projected meteorological data, simulations of winter wheat growth were performed over the winter wheat region for 2021–2050. The simulated number of days to the flowering period of winter wheat for 2041–2050 was on average 6.5 days less than in 2021–2030, due to the spring warming. Because of the earlier start of the growing season, winter wheat could face negative effects by being subjected to low temperatures. Indeed, the number of low‐temperature days was projected to increase by 110% from 2041 to 2050 compared to 2021–2030, and the number of killing degree days (KDDs) is projected to increase by 120% at the same time. If the number of days to flowering did not change, the number of low‐temperature days and KDDs only changed slightly, showing that the negative influence of low temperature was mainly caused by the advancement of the flowering date. The effect of low temperature on growth was underestimated when the response of winter wheat growth to global warming was not considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A heavy rainfall trajectory (HRT) is defined as the trajectory formed by the movement of the rainstorm centre of a heavy rainfall event over time. Based on this definition, the dispersion degree (DD) of HRTs is applied based on the Euclidean distance and an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) to quantify the spatiotemporal distribution and evolution characteristics of HRTs in China. The results show that (a) the spatial distribution and length of HRTs in China have distinct geographical and seasonal characteristics, which are strongly influenced by the East Asian summer monsoon. (b) From southeast China to northwest China, the DDs increased to 8 and the length of HRTs decreased by 53,925 m. (c) According to EOF analysis, the direction angle change of northeast‐oriented HRTs shows a significant negative trend across the country, while those of southeast‐, southwest‐ and northwest‐oriented HRTs show a significant positive trend. From 2008 to 2019, HRTs flattened in the northeast and southwest directions, while HRTs steepened in the southeast and northwest directions. This research provides certain scientific guidance for the prevention and mitigation of regional disasters and provides necessary theoretical support for the changing patterns of the climate system under the impact of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the frequency of dry/wet spells is a hot topic in global climate change research. The synergistic effects of dry/wet spells make their consequences far more significant than a single disaster, having considerable impacts on hydrology, ecology, and economies, especially in the context of global warming. In this study, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI)‐based identification of dry/wet spells was used to explore the evolution of the frequency of dry/wet abrupt alternation (DWAA) events in the past four decades in China, makes up for the lack of research on the evolution of such compound disasters. China has been affected by dry/wet spells in many areas for a long time. Studies found that high‐frequency DWAA areas are concentrated in densely populated areas, China's essential food bases and core areas for economic development. Dry‐to‐wet (D–W) events and wet‐to‐dry (W–D) events basically increased or decreased at the same pace in this period. We innovatively find DWAA events (D–W events and W–D events) are projected to occur increasingly in a wider region of China. The frequency of D–W events across China has increased from 2.35 in the 1980s to 3.56 in the last decade, a 50% increase. On the other hand, W–D events increased from 2.6 to 3.23, increasing 24%. The three regions with the most remarkable changes in the past four decades are Inner Mongolia, northwest China, and north China, where D–W events increased by 121, 61, and 58%, respectively, and W–D events increased by 71, 57, and 61%, respectively. Hereby, it is vital to implement effective prevention against DWAA events in the area which has been neglected in the past decades because of lower frequency. These results may help policymakers develop suitable disaster mitigation plans for reducing the potential risks of extreme compound natural events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last millennium (LM, 1000–1850 AD) is crucial for studying historical climate change on decadal to multidecadal timescales. The summer surface air temperature (SAT) evolutions on regional scales (e.g. over China) are more uncertain than the globe/Northern Hemisphere, especially in response to external forcing factors and internal climate variability. Here, we provide one‐signal (full‐forcing) fingerprints of summer SAT in China derived from three large ensemble model archives with a multi‐proxy reconstruction during the LM, Little Ice Age (LIA, 1451–1850 AD), and Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, 1000–1250 AD), respectively. Our results show that (a) SATs in the northeast, southeast, northwest, and Tibetan Plateau (TP) regions of China show evident decreasing trends during the LM. External forcing response from all model archives agrees with the regional SAT reconstruction but underestimates variability in northwest China at the multidecadal timescale. (b) During the LIA, the summer regional SAT exhibits a cold condition in the reconstruction and simulations, especially in the northeast and northwest regions of China. External forcing responses in most model archives are the dominant factor on multidecadal SAT evolutions in the southeast, northeast, and TP regions of China and decadal SAT evolutions in northwest China. (c) During the MCA, detection and attribution of SAT shows that internal climate variability dominates in southeast, northeast, and TP regions of China, but external forcing dominates in northwest China at decadal to multidecadal timescales. These results contribute to a better understanding of the causes and mechanisms of regional climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support future solar energy deployment in China, long‐term changes in solar energy resources over China were investigated based on high‐resolution dynamical downscaling simulations under three emission scenarios. First, an evaluation of model performance was conducted through comparison with station and ERA5 data, which indicated that although consistent overestimation was found, the spatial distribution and intra‐annual variation of solar radiation were captured well by ensemble simulation, showing added value over regions with complex topography as well. Then, the trends of the solar power output from photovoltaic (PV) systems during 2020–2099 were projected, characterized by an increase in east and central China, and a consistent decrease in the solar‐energy‐abundant regions (e.g., northeast China, the Tibetan Plateau, and northwest China) under the three scenarios. Except for under the low emission scenario, the regional averaged trends of PV were projected to decrease consistently over China in all four seasons, with significant magnitude apparent in both spring and winter. In addition, a more intense magnitude of decline was found under the higher emission scenario, with more subregions with a significant trend and higher intra‐annual and inter‐annual variability. However, it seems that the emission scenarios impact the spatial pattern only remarkably in the late century, however strengthened the decreasing magnitude in all future periods. In addition, results indicate decline in the future PV potential over most of subregions of China due to reduced radiation and increased temperature, but for the decrease over Tibetan Plateau the reduced wind speed also act as an important factor. Plain Language Summary: The long‐term goal of carbon neutrality in China involves new requirements for the development and utilization of solar energy. The present study was motivated by supporting future solar energy deployment at local scales. However, due to data limitations, relatively little effort has been made to project long‐term changes in solar energy over different subregions of China. Accordingly, we investigated this based on a set of high‐resolution dynamical downscaling simulations under different climate scenarios, and found that the higher emission scenarios reinforce the magnitude of the decline in solar energy and result in higher inter‐annual variability. These findings suggest an increased need for constraining emissions for the benefit of solar energy. In addition, we found that radiation will likely be the most important factor related to future changes in solar resources over most of subregions under RCP2.6 scenario, however the effect of wind speed should not be ignored over Tibetan Plateau. Key Points: Despite some overestimation, the spatial distribution and intra‐annual variation of solar radiation were captured well, showing added valuesFuture solar power were projected to generally increase in east and central China but decrease in solar‐energy‐abundant regionsRadiation was the most robust factor for future solar energy trend over China, however wind speed can not be ignored over Tibetan Plateau [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concurrent hot extremes and droughts undoubtedly aggravate the impacts of droughts on agriculture, natural environment, and human society. Recent studies mainly focus on the trends and changes in frequency and severity of compound drought and hot extreme events. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the changes in mean temperature during drought conditions. In this study, we investigated the mean temperature changes during droughts in observed and projected periods across China on a century time‐scale and explored the possible contributions of land surface‐atmosphere interactions or atmospheric moisture conditions to these changes. China experienced reduced rather than amplified warming under droughts both in observations and future projections. A drier condition or a higher emission scenario was projected to result in a larger range of mean temperature changes under droughts in the future. We attributed the reduced mean temperatures under droughts to increasing winter droughts and higher atmospheric moisture conditions. This study provides a reference for water resource management, drought risk reduction, as well as mitigation of agricultural crop loss and public health damage. Plain Language Summary: Previous climate studies generally focus on the trend analysis of concurrent droughts and hot extremes, especially in summer. There are gaps in our knowledge on how does the mean temperature under droughts change under climate warming, and what are the underlying driving factors? We investigated the changes in mean temperature during droughts across China using monthly observed data and projected data. China experienced reduced rather than amplified warming under droughts both in observations and future projections. A drier condition or a higher emission scenario could result in a larger range of mean temperature changes under droughts in the future. Increasing winter droughts and higher atmospheric moisture conditions resulted in the reduced mean temperatures under droughts. Our study provides references for policymakers to inform water resource management, drought risk reduction, and mitigation of agricultural crop loss. Key Points: China experienced reduced rather than amplified warming under drought conditions both in observations and future projectionsA drier condition or a higher emission scenario resulted in a larger range of mean temperature changes under future droughtsWe attributed the reduced mean temperatures under droughts to increasing winter droughts and higher atmospheric moisture conditions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Projections of future drought conditions under climate change are an important step in formulating the long‐term climate adaptation strategies. It is therefore valuable to predict the drought conditions in China following the release of the CMIP6 (the phase six of the Coupled Model Inter‐comparison Project). Thus, based on 20 global climate model simulations from CMIP6, we project China's drought conditions and its socioeconomic impacts using the self‐calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI). Four scenarios are considered in this analysis: SSP1‐2.6 (the low‐level development scenario), SSP2‐4.5 (the middle‐level development scenario), SSP3‐7.0 (the medium to high‐level development scenario) and SSP5‐8.5 (the high‐level development scenario). Under SSP1‐2.6, we observed wetting trends over large areas of China except the arid region during 2020–2099; however, under SSP2‐4.5, SSP3‐7.0 and SSP5‐8.5, significant drying trends are detected in the humid and temperate semi‐humid region, while in other areas there are significant wetting trends. The projected drought conditions are likely to be severe with more frequent monthly occurrences and higher probability of extreme drying conditions, especially in these humid and temperate semi‐humid regions under SSP3‐7.0 and SSP5‐8.5. Consequently, the population exposure to drought in most climatic regions will increase initially up to 2040s and gradually decrease under all the scenarios except SSP3‐7.0; and the humid region will be a future hotspot where the impact of climate on population exposure to drought will be more significant. The economic exposure to drought will increase over the whole China under all four scenarios, especially in the humid and semi‐humid region. Our results have important implications for future drought projections and provide a scientific evidence for developing climate change adaptation strategies and disaster prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal education is theorised to be an essential vehicle to promote and trigger pro‐environmental attitudes and behavioural changes among citizens via the increase of public awareness and concern. However, robust estimations of its causal effect on individuals' concern for the environment are scarce. This study aimed to estimate the effect of educational attainment on environmental concern in China, addressing the problem of endogeneity. China is the largest emitter of CO2 and faces severe environmental problems due to its rapid process of industrialisation and urbanisation. The findings show that educational attainment has a robust positive causal effect on environmental concern in China. After addressing potential endogeneity issues using an instrumental variable approach, the effect is stronger than a conventional ordinal least squares estimation. Thus, education is a crucial path of action to promote environmental concern and subsequent pro‐environmental behaviour in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on hourly temperature data collected from 2,307 meteorological stations over China and two sets of climate change simulations over East Asia using the regional climate model version 4.4 (RegCM4.4) driven by the global models of HadGEM2‐ES and MPI‐ESM‐MR, future changes of heating and cooling degree‐hours (HDH and CDH) at the end of the 21st century under RCP4.5 scenario are investigated. Compared against the observation, the spatial distribution, magnitude and annual cycle of present‐day HDH and CDH at different times, as well as the diurnal cycle of them can be realistically simulated by the model. Meanwhile, some bias can also be found and it varies with the times, especially for CDH. At the end of the century, significant decrease of HDH can be found over the Tibetan Plateau, the northern part of Northeast China, and Northwest China at each times while increase of CDH are observed at all the times except some parts of the Tibetan Plateau where the CDH remains zero due to the cold climate there. But for different times, some differences are found in HDH decrease and CDH increase. For example, the changes of HDH at the fifth to the seventh times present a weaker decrease in the northwestern basins compared to other times and the CDH increase are more significant at the fifth and the sixth times. The regional mean changes of HDH and CDH over China in the 21st century (2006–2098) also diverge among different times, which indicates the degree‐hours is needed to precisely calculate the hourly heating and cooling energy demand and then the heating and cooling degree days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant regeneration strategy plays a critical role in species survival and can be used as a proxy for the evolutionary response of species to climate change. However, information on the effects of key plant traits and phylogenetic relatedness on seed germination is limited at large regional scales that vary in climate. To test the hypotheses that phylogenetic niche conservatism plays a critical force in shaping seed ecophysiological traits across species, and also drives their response to climatic fluctuation, we conducted a controlled experiment on seed germination and determined the percentage and rate of germination for 249 species in subtropical China under two temperature regimes (i.e., daily 25°C; daily alternating 25/15°C for each 12 hr). Germination was low with a skewed distribution (mean = 38.9% at 25°C, and 43.3% at 25/15°C). One fifth of the species had low (<10%) and slow (4–30 days) germination, and only a few (8%) species had a high (>80%) and rapid (1.2–6.6 days) germination. All studied plant traits (including germination responses) showed a significant phylogenetic signal, with an exception of seed germination percentage under the alternating temperature scenario. Generalized linear models (GLMs) and phylogenetic generalized estimation equations (GEEs) demonstrated that growth form and seed dispersal mode were strong drivers of germination. Our experimental study highlights that integrating plant key traits and phylogeny is critical to predicting seed germination response to future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maize is one of China's most important crops and is profoundly sensitive to drought. Using weather and county‐level maize yield data, the drought risk for maize in China was estimated for the period 1971–2010. The results show that drought risk has increased in China over the last 40 years, and that areas experiencing moderate to high drought risk have expanded, particularly in Northeast China. The main reasons for the observed changes are increased drought hazard associated with climate change, and increased exposure of maize to drought due to an expanded production area. Drought risk over all of China increased by 55% in the 2000s compared to the 1970s. While around 93% of the increase in drought risk in the maize production regions is due to increased drought exposure, 7% is attributable to climate change. In Northeast China alone, drought risk increased by 129% from the 1970s to the 2000s, which is the sum of an 86% increase caused by greater drought exposure, associated with expansion of the production area, and a 14% increase driven by climate change. The results indicate that the drought hazard has increased by around 13%, and drought risk has increased by 110% for each 1°C rise in annual mean temperature in Northeast China over the past 40 years. Maize yield losses have increased by around 4% per 1°C increase in annual mean temperature in this region. The sensitivity of maize to drought means that climate change is likely to have significant negative impact on future maize productivity, and China's export and import of maize is likely to be affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As atmospheric moisture holding capacity is positively dependent on temperatures, a large intensification of precipitation extremes is projected under foreseeable climate warming. Flooding that is mainly attributed to extreme storms usually accounts for an ambitious target in weather‐related hazard mitigation over China. Previous works seldom focused on flooding evolution patterns under climate change at a national scale, and fewer flooding projections considered the estimation uncertainty sourced from limited samples. This study systematically projected changes in flood quantiles based on annual maximum series and seasonality and also evaluated the variations of sampling uncertainty for 151 catchments over mainland China under the emission scenario of representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5. In order to project future streamflow series, the bias‐corrected outputs of six global climate models (GCMs) were input into a best‐performing hydrological model, which was selected from four calibrated hydrological models based on the KGE criteria. The Pearson type‐III (P‐III) distribution and L‐moments (L‐M) method were employed to derive the flood quantiles for different return periods during historical (1961–2005) and future (2056–2100) periods, and the bootstrapping method was applied to estimate the sampling uncertainty. A regression trend method was used to track the variations of flood seasonality in the context of climate warming. Our results project earlier flood timing and larger flood quantiles for most catchments in future period than those in the historical period, despite being accompanied by substantial spatial variations. We also project that the sampling uncertainty in estimating flood quantiles is increased in a warming future. Many catchments are exposed to dramatic changes in both flood quantile and estimation uncertainty by over 50%, while only a few catchments are projected to have decreasing flood risks. These results suggest an urgent need to improve the functionality of early warning systems and increase societal resilience to warming climates over China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic development and natural ecosystems of China are strongly affected by droughts. The socioeconomic risk of droughts in China should be quantified under climate change. This study assessed drought impacts on population and gross domestic product (GDP) under the 2.0°C‐warmer climate scenario, by implementing multiple general circulation model (GCM) simulations under the representative concentration pathway (RCP). Using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), we calculated drought frequencies in the base period (1986–2005) and 2.0°C‐warmer climate (2040–2059 in RCP4.5). Then, population and GDP exposures were evaluated by combining the drought frequency with population and GDP simulations under a shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP). Droughts were likely to occur more frequently under the 2°C‐warmer climate, especially for inland areas of northern China (i.e., Xinjiang, Xizang, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu provinces), consisting mainly of mild and moderate droughts. Population exposure to drought was projected at 4.94 ± 0.36 × 109 person‐months, around 2% increase over the base period value. GDP exposure would increase significantly to 2.08 ± 0.15 × 1014 PPP $‐months, approximately 14‐fold over the base period. Probability analysis showed nearly 50% of the grid cells of China's entire territory undergoing more than an 11‐fold increase in GDP exposure. Our findings indicated the climate and GDP effects were primary contributors, respectively, to the changed population and GDP exposures to drought. Population and GDP exposures were distributed unequally across the country, having a large impact in the east where both population and economic activity are highly agglomerated. Our results reveal an urgent need to design and implement effective adaptation measures to overcome droughts, especially in eastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dry‐wet abrupt alternation (DWAA) event, which is defined as the phenomenon of dry (or wet) spells abruptly following wet (or dry) spells, magnifies the influence of individual wet and dry events. The dynamic evolution of DWAA events has not been studied for different climate zones of China that is particularly susceptible to dry and wet extremes. This study explores the future changes in the abrupt alternations between dry and wet extremes across 10 climate divisions of China, with a thorough assessment of dry and wet conditions using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). We take advantage of an ensemble of regional climate model simulations including the Providing Regional Climate Impacts for Studies (PRECIS) experiment and five CORDEX East Asia experiments to produce high‐resolution climate information for a baseline period of 1975–2004 and a future period of 2069–2098. Our findings disclose that a total of 70% of China's land area suffered from the DWAA events at least once during 1975–2004. The wet‐dry alternation event is projected to become more frequent in summer, and a prominent increase in the number of dry‐wet alternation events is expected to occur in spring over most parts of China. Moreover, an increasing number of DWAA events with intensified magnitude is projected to strike the North China Plain dominated by warm temperature and humid zone, which is the most densely populated region of the country and is also the largest agriculture production area. Our findings also reveal a strong positive correlation between DWAA and heavy rainfall. The 95th percentile rainfall event contributes most to the wet‐dry alternation event for most climate divisions of China. Plain Language Summary: The emerging disaster of dry‐wet abrupt alternation (DWAA) has been receiving increasing attention due to its compound effects on agricultural production and socioeconomic development. Since China is exposed to dry and wet hydrological extremes as well as their interconnections, a first attempt is made in this study to explore the historical evolution and the future change in the abrupt shifts between dry and wet extremes for different climate divisions of China. Our findings reveal that a total of 70% of China's land area suffered from DWAA events at least once from 1975 to 2004. More importantly, the DWAA is expected to occur more frequently and intense by the end of the 21st century, especially for the North China Plain which is the most densely populated region of the country and is also the largest agricultural production area. Moreover, the summertime wet‐dry alternation is expected to become more frequent for most climate divisions of China, while the dry‐wet alternation event is projected to occur more frequently in spring over East China. These findings provide meaningful insights into the development of adaptation strategies for enhancing society's resilience to compound extremes in a changing climate. Key Points: A total of 70% of China's land area suffered from the dry‐wet abrupt alternation events at least once during 1975–2004The dry‐wet abrupt alternation events are projected to occur more frequently with greater intensity in the North China PlainThe 95th percentile rainfall event contributes most to the wet‐dry alternation event for most climate divisions of China [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial ecosystem productivity (TEP) is an important component of ecological services. The variability of the TEP is driven by multiple factors, both natural and anthropogenic. However, little is known about the dominant factor driving the TEP change at the pixel level, which may hinder ecosystem management particularly in face of global climate changes. In this study, a 22‐year‐long dataset including climate, net primary production (NPP), and human activity was obtained to identify, at a pixel level, the dominant factors of NPP variation in China from 1992 to 2013. The results showed that: (a) the total NPP of China varied from 3.37 to 4.55 PgC/yr and continued to increase with a larger proportion being contributed from eastern China, (b) radiation is the greatest contributor to the NPP variation in China, followed by temperature and precipitation, (c) human activity‐driven pixels are relatively dispersed, and are mainly located in the rural–urban fringe zones, and (d) a total of five subregions are identified, of which Regions I and II require more attention with regard to future NPP evolution. The results of this study are important at the policy level for future management of China's ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the communication tools employed by the EU and the People's Republic of China to project themselves as normative actors and their construction of specific role conceptions in the context of global climate change negotiations. The empirical spine of the article consists of a discourse analysis of 134 documents released by the EU and China on the issue of climate change and climate change negotiations between the 2008 Copenhagen and the 2015 Paris climate summits. The findings are that both the EU and China go to great lengths to position themselves as responsible global citizens, employing relatively consistent framing devices. Not only are the findings interesting when it comes to EU and China identity‐building as foreign policy actors; they also hint at more generic parameters along which the role of normative actor is constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change is likely to affect reference evapotranspiration (ET0), which is important for agricultural water resources and food security. Analysis of ET0 changes is also important for understanding climate change and its impacts on hydrology. In this study, ET0 was calculated from 2020 to 2099 in nine agricultural regions and the entire country of China utilizing the Penman–Monteith method based on bias‐corrected climate data from the global climate models MIROC‐ESM‐CHEM, NorES1‐M, IPSL‐CM5A‐LR, GFDL‐ESM 2M and HadGEM2‐ES under future climate change scenarios. The spatiotemporal characteristics of seasonal and annual ET0 and climatic variables were analysed based on the Mann–Kendall test with trend‐free prewhitening (TFPW‐MK) and Sen's slope estimator. Sensitivity coefficient and multivariate regression were used to identify factors controlling the change in ET0. The results showed that seasonal and annual air temperature and precipitation both increased under all climate scenarios, and the majority of relative humidity and wind speed values showed downward trends during 2020–2099. The lowest annual ET0 values were found in the NECR and QTR, and the SCR had the maximum ET0. Both the TFPW‐MK and slope statistics showed an upward trend of seasonal ET0 during 2020–2059 under all scenarios. During 2060–2099, seasonal ET0 values showed a slight and nonsignificant downward trend under RCP 2.6, while upward trends were produced in other scenarios. Areas with high ET0 values were located in the SCR, GXR and HHHR, while low ET0 values mainly occurred in the NECR and QTR. The ET0 for the four seasons in the SCR was higher than that in the other regions, and the summer ET0 was the highest compared with that in the other seasons overall. For the attribution assessment, Tavg is the main controlling variables to ET0 trends under the interaction of multiple climatic factors though RH is the most sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key challenge in ecology is to understand the relationships between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Here, with a novel dataset of leaf length and width for 10 480 woody dicots in China and 2374 in North America, we show that the variation in community mean leaf size is highly correlated with the variation in climate and ecosystem primary productivity, independent of plant life form. These relationships likely reflect how natural selection modifies leaf size across varying climates in conjunction with how climate influences canopy total leaf area. We find that the leaf size‒primary productivity functions based on the Chinese dataset can predict productivity in North America and vice‐versa. In addition to advancing understanding of the relationship between a climate‐driven trait and ecosystem functioning, our findings suggest that leaf size can also be a promising tool in palaeoecology for scaling from fossil leaves to palaeo‐primary productivity of woody ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last few years have seen a surge of scholarly interest in how cultures have been influenced by climate, climatic changes, and extremes of weather. This "cultural turn" of climate history draws from the archives of society, rather than the archives of nature, and is heavily influenced by interpretative and methodological frameworks drawn from the humanities fields. Attention has been largely focused on European contexts and cultures. This article aims to show, however, that the climate history of Asia is on the cusp of developing its own strong cultural turn and that strong foundations and precedents have already been set. This article has two main objectives. The first is to explore approaches in the history of the climate in East Asia that claim to investigate interactions between climatic changes or extreme events and society and culture. Many of these are macro studies, comparing climatic changes with dramatic events in history. Then, it will take a closer look at scholarship that has focused closely on the ideas and beliefs that characterize a society, showing how regional customs and philosophical systems have developed in relation to weather. It will argue that better integration between the two approaches is needed if we are to fully grasp the interdependence of people and climate, a question that becomes ever more critical as we move further into the Anthropocene. This article is categorized under:Climate, History, Society, Culture > World Historical Perspectives [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forecast of CO2 emissions is very crucial, especially for Pakistan as it is one of the top victims of climate change. A univariate model, (ARIMA) autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), was used to forecast CO2 emissions for Pakistan. The CO2 emissions scenarios were developed for Pakistan till 2020, forecasting them further to 2030. The scenarios developed include China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) scenario, where CO2 emissions from high‐priority energy projects under the CPEC were considered. The scenarios attempt to estimate the impactful emission reduction percentage, which the country needs to adopt along with other necessary changes in the existing policies of the country. The forecast results clearly indicate that the emissions are bound to increase under business as usual and CPEC scenarios and the country would fail to meet the Nationally Determined Contributions pledged at COP21. In other scenarios, where we assumed the country has adopted mitigatory strategies to curb the emissions, the forecast shows decreased CO2 emissions for Pakistan. The mean absolute percentage error for all the forecasts was found to be less than 10%, making the forecast highly accurate. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]