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Background: Bulinus globosus, the main intermediate snail host of Schistosoma haematobium. The increased contacts between Africa and China could even lead to large-scale dissemination of B. globosus in China. Temperature is the key factor affecting fresh-water snail transmission. This study predicted potential risk of colonization of B. globosus in the mainland of China under climate change., Methods: We investigated minimum and maximum temperatures for B. globosus eggs, juveniles and adult snails kept under laboratory conditions to find the most suitable range by pinpointing the median effective temperatures (ET50). We also assessed the influence of temperature on spawning and estimated the accumulated temperature (AT). The average air temperatures between 1955 and 2019 in January and July, the coldest and hottest months in China, respectively, were collected from national meteorological monitoring stations and investigated in a geographic information system (GIS) using empirical Bayesian Kriging to evaluate the theoretical possibility for distribution of B. globosus in southern China based on temperature., Results: The effective minimum temperature (ET50 min ) for eggs, juveniles, adult snails and spawning were 8.5, 7.0, 7.0, 14.9 °C, respectively, with the corresponding maximum values (ET50 max ) of 36.6, 40.5, 40.2 and 38.1 °C. The AT was calculated at 712.1 ± 64.9 °C·d. In 1955, the potential B. globosus distribution would have had a northern boundary stretching from the coastal areas of Guangdong Province and Guangxi Autonomous Region to southern Yunnan Province. Since then, this line has gradually moved northward., Conclusions: Annual regeneration of B. globosus can be supported by the current climate conditions in the mainland of China, and a gradual expansion trend from south to north is shown in the study from 2015 to 2019. Thus, there is a potential risk of colonization of B. globosus in the mainland of China under climate change., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Under the context of global warming, compound dry and hot events (CDHEs) will increase and bring serious losses to society and the economy. The projection of CDHEs is of great significance for policy-making and risk assessment. In this paper, two large ensemble simulations, CanESM2-LE and CESM-LE, are used to estimate the risk of extreme CDHEs under different warming scenarios in China. First, the biases of the model in the simulation of the temperature and precipitation over the China region are corrected, and the index of CDHEs is established based on a copula function. The results show that extreme CDHEs will occur more often in China with the increase in global warming and the more severe extreme CDHEs are, the greater the risk will be in the future with higher uncertainties. Events that would be attained once every 50 and 100 years in the current climate from CESM-LE (CAanESM2-LE) will be 1.2/1.6 (1.1/1.5) times and 1.3/2.3 (1.5/2.0) times more likely to occur in a 1.5°C/2.0°C warmer climate, respectively. Northwestern China will experience the greatest increase in the risk of extreme CDHEs. Extreme CDHEs expected once every 100 years in the current period over NW China are expected to occur approximately every 5 and 4 years under a 4.0°C warmer world in CanESM2-LE and CESM-LE, respectively., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Cliffs are recognized as one of the most challenging environments for plants, characterized by harsh conditions such as drought, infertile soil, and steep terrain. However, they surprisingly host ancient and diverse plant communities and play a crucial role in protecting biodiversity. The Taihang Mountains, which act as a natural boundary in eastern China, support a rich variety of plant species, including many unique to cliff habitats. However, it is little known how cliff plants adapt to harsh habitats and the demographic history in this region. Results: To better understand the demographic history and adaptation of cliff plants in this area, we analyzed the chromosome-level genome of a representative cliff plant, T. rupestris var. ciliata, which has a genome size of 769.5 Mb, with a scaffold N50 of 104.92 Mb. The rapid expansion of transposable elements may have contributed to the increasing genome and its ability to adapt to unique and challenging cliff habitats. Comparative analysis of the genome evolution between Taihangia and non-cliff plants in Rosaceae revealed a significant expansion of gene families associated with oxidative phosphorylation, which is likely a response to the abiotic stresses faced by cliff plants. This expansion may explain the long-term adaptation of Taihangia to harsh cliff environments. The effective population size of the two varieties has continuously decreased due to climatic fluctuations during the Quaternary period. Furthermore, significant differences in gene expression between the two varieties may explain the varied leaf phenotypes and adaptations to harsh conditions in different natural distributions. Conclusion: Our study highlights the extraordinary adaptation of T. rupestris var. ciliata, shedding light on the evolution of cliff plants worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With global climate change looming large, there is an urgent need for China's energy sector to take steps towards carbon neutrality. This study aims to explore how digital technologies can contribute to the pathway for China's energy sector to achieve carbon neutrality. By analyzing carbon neutrality policies and digital technology applications, we propose a systematic pathway framework to guide China's energy sector in integrating digital technology to accelerate the pace of achieving carbon neutrality in the energy sector. We first review the current status of carbon emissions and carbon neutrality targets in China's energy sector, and in light of the development trend of modern digital technologies, we propose key application areas for digital technologies in realizing carbon neutrality in the energy sector. Second, we detail the specific applications and effects of digital technologies in energy supply side optimization, energy utilization efficiency improvement, carbon sink management, and smart grid construction. Through theoretical modeling and empirical analysis, we demonstrate the great potential of digital technologies in carbon emission reduction and carbon neutrality in the energy sector and reveal the key role of digital technologies in carbon–neutral pathways. Finally, we propose effective technology implementation measures and point out important challenges and solution paths for digital technologies in carbon–neutral practices. This study provides a scientific basis and guidance for China's energy sector to achieve carbon neutrality with the help of digital technologies and promotes the important steps towards carbon neutrality in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake organic matter is one of the important forms of terrestrial carbon, and its sedimentary evolution is affected by many factors such as climate and sources. However, few studies have been conducted on the feedback mechanism of the sedimentary evolution of organic matter to climate change in cold and arid lakes. Historical variations and compositions of sources of the sediment organic matter (SOM) of Hulun Lake, a typical lake in the cold and arid region of China, were studied by multiple methods. The interactions and fee7dback mechanisms between the sedimentary evolution of SOM and climate change, and compositions of SOM source change, were also discussed. Overall, the characteristic indexes of the SOM, including total organic carbon (TOC), carbon stable isotope (δ13C), carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), and fluorescence intensity (FI) of the protein-like component in water extractable organic matter (WEOM), showed obvious and uniform characteristics of periodical changes. The indexes were relatively stable before 1920, and fluctuated from 1920 to 1979. Since the 1980s, values of TOC, δ13C, and FI of the protein-like component in WEOM has increased, while C/N decreased. The absolute dominant contribution of terrestrial source to the SOM had changed, and the relative average contribution rate of autochthonous source increased from 17.6% before 1920 to 36.9% after 2000. The increase of temperature, strong evaporation concentration effect, and change of compositions of SOM sources are the important driving factors of the sedimentary evolution of organic matter in Hulun Lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change has threatened world crop production and food security. Decoding the adaptive genetic basis of wild relatives provides an invaluable genomic resource for climate‐smart crop breedinG. Here, we performed whole‐genome sequencing of 185 diverse wild soybean (Glycine soja) accessions collected from three major agro‐ecological zones in China to parse the genomic basis of local adaptation in wild soybean. The population genomic diversity pattern exhibited clear agro‐ecological zone‐based population structure, and multiple environmental factors were observed to contribute to the genetic divergence. Demographic analysis shows that wild soybeans from the three ecological zones diverged about 1 × 105 years ago, and then the effective population sizes have undergone different degrees of expansions. Genome‐environment association identified multiple genes involved in the local adaptation, such as flowering time and temperature‐related genes. A locus containing two adjacent MADS‐box transcription factors on chromosome 19 was identified for multiple environmental factors, and it experienced positive selection that enables the adaptation to high‐latitude environment. This study provides insights into the genetic mechanism of ecological adaptation in wild soybean that may facilitate climate‐resilient soybean breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormal climate changes have resulted in over-precipitation in many regions. The occurrence and contamination levels of mycotoxins in crops and cereals have been elevated largely. From 2017 to 2019, we did investigation targeting 15 mycotoxins shown in the wheat samples collected from Shandong, a region suffering over-precipitation in China. We found that deoxynivalenol (DON) was the dominant mycotoxin contaminating wheats, with detection rates 304/340 in 2017 (89.41%), 303/330 in 2018 (91.82%), and 303/340 in 2019 (89.12%). The ranges of DON levels were < 4 to 580 μg/kg in 2017, < 4 to 3070 μg/kg in 2018, and < 4 to 1540 μg/kg in 2019. The exposure levels were highly correlated with local precipitation. Male exposure levels were generally higher than female's, with significant difference found in 2017 (1.89-fold, p = 0.023). Rural exposure levels were higher than that of cities but not statistically significant (1.41-fold, p = 0.13). Estimated daily intake (EDI) and margin of exposure (MoE) approaches revealed that 8 prefecture cities have probabilistically extra adverse health effects (vomiting or diarrhea) cases > 100 patients in 100,000 residents attributable to DON exposure. As a prominent wheat-growing area, Dezhou city reached ~ 300/100,000 extra cases while being considered as a major regional contributor to DON contamination. Our study suggests that more effort should be given to the prevention and control of DON contamination in major wheat-growing areas, particularly during heavy precipitation year. The mechanistic association between DON and chronic intestinal disorder/diseases should be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impacts and extent of both climate change and human activities on ecosystems is crucial to sustainable development. With low anti-interference ability, arid and semi-arid ecosystems are particularly sensitive to disturbances from both climate change and human activities. We investigated how and to what extent climate variation and human activities influenced major indicators that are related to ecosystem functions and conditions in the past decades in Xinjiang, a typical arid and semi-arid region in China. We analyzed the changing trends of evapotranspiration (ET), gross primary productivity (GPP) and leaf area index (LAI) derived from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite product and the Breathing Earth System Simulator (BESS) model in Xinjiang for different climate zones. We separated and quantified the contributions of climate forcing and human activities on the trends of the studied ecosystem indicators using the residual analysis method for different climate zones in Xinjiang. The results show that GPP and LAI increased and ET decreased from 2001 to 2015 in Xinjiang. Factors that dominate the changes in ecosystem indicators vary considerably across different climate zones. Precipitation plays a positive role in impacting vegetation indicators in arid and hyper-arid zones and temperature has a negative correlation with both GPP and LAI in hyper-arid zones in Xinjiang. Results based on residual analysis indicate that human activities could account for over 72% of variation in the changes in each ecosystem indicator. Human activities have large impacts on each vegetation indicator change in hyper-arid and arid zones and their relative contribution has a mean value of 79%. This study quantifies the roles of climate forcing and human activities in the changes in ecosystem indicators across different climate zones, suggesting that human activities largely influence ecosystem processes in the arid and semi-arid regions of Xinjiang in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a precautionary tool for decision-makings towards sustainable development, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is quite promising in coping with climate change by taking the advantage of alternatives evaluation as early intervention and planning optimization. Despite of the acknowledged merits, the current alternatives evaluation has presented a weakness when tackling with the climate factors in practice due to an evident lack of carbon-related indicators. The challenge is even more pronounced in hydropower planning for the most sensitive response to climate, the most complicated impacts to evaluate and the recent doubts about the nature as a clean energy. Considering the assignable carbon emissions from the hydropower engineering including pre-treatment, construction, operation and decommission, six indicators of carbon footprint were selected and integrated with the conventional eco-environment and socio-economic considerations for evaluating four alternatives in the SEA of Upper Yellow River hydropower planning in China. The total 24 indicators were marked by the invited experts, and weighted by employing the BP neural network. The ranked marks from invited experts and improved by BP neural network weighting showed that the alternative II is the best among the four, indicating the slightest environmental impacts, the minimal carbon emissions, and the highest socio-economic benefits. This study delivered an improved framework based on the conventional rapid impact assessment method (RIAM) and carbon footprint assessment, and provided a practical technical solution for evaluating planning alternatives in the context of green hydropower development. • Considering carbon with other impacts at source is critical to green hydropower. • Carbon impacts is absent in China's hydropower strategic environmental assessment. • The proposed method integrates carbon footprint and rapid impact assessment matrix. • The improved evaluation recommended more low-carbon and eco-friendly alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inappropriate long-term reclamation has reduced ecological services, including carbon sequestration, in Inner Mongolia's interlocking agricultural and pastoral lands near the northern foot of Yinshanbeilu, making this one of China's most environmentally fragile areas. Regional ecosystem changes and sustainable development depend on the understanding of how climate change and anthropogenic activities affect the net primary production (NPP) of vegetation. (1) Fluctuations in vegetation NPP tended to increase at a ratio of 2.974 g·m−2·a−1. The vegetation NPP increased in 99.49% of the research area; 77.97% of this production was significant. (2) Precipitation and temperature restricted vegetation growth, and the impact of atmospheric precipitation on vegetation NPP exceeded that of both the spatial and temporal dimensions. Precipitation affected grassland NPP more than arable NPP. However, the direct and indirect effects of temperature were greater on arable NPP than on grassland NPP. (3) Changes in climate and anthropogenic activities changed the vegetation NPP by 46.23% and 53.77%, respectively, with the values showing significant spatial variability. Climate change dominated vegetation changes in sparsely populated and underdeveloped areas, whereas human activity was dominant in populated and economically developed areas. (4) Vegetation NPP loss in Yinsanbeilu occurred mostly when the land was changed from grassland to other land use types, whereas growth occurred mostly when the land was changed from arable land to grassland. These results improve the understanding of how climate change and anthropogenic activities affect vegetation dynamics and provide a foundation for vegetation restoration and quality enhancement. • Separate the effects of climate change and human activity on NPP. • Precipitation (temperature) has a combined effect on NPP, both directly and indirectly. • Vegetation NPP loss in the Yinsanbeilu is mostly from grassland to other land uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The influences of the geometric parameters of the reactor on the SCPP-HPCR are investigated. • A formula is proposed to calculate the CO 2 emissions reduction of the system. • The optimal operating conditions of the SCPP-HPCR is analyzed. • 2.38 kg of CH 4 is degraded and 375.52 kg of CO 2 is reduced through the system one day. The increase of 1.09 °C in global temperature resulted in significant catastrophes because of the extreme climate. The climate change rate can be slowed down by reducing the levels of CH 4 and CO 2 in the atmosphere. The solar chimney power plant integrated with a honeycomb photocatalytic reactor (SCPP-HPCR) uses the photocatalytic technology to remove atmospheric CH 4. In addition, CO 2 emissions can be reduced from coal fired power plant due to the generating capacity of the system. In this paper, the influence of the geometric parameters of the reactor and turbine on the overall performance of the SCPP-HPCR is studied by numerical simulation. The obtained results showed that the flow resistance inside the system was mostly caused by the HPCR at low turbine speed, and primarily by the turbine at high turbine speed. Reducing the pore diameter of the reactor could improve the photocatalytic performance of the SCPP-HPCR more than increasing the turbine speed. The SCPP-HPCR having a pore diameter of 3 mm, porosity of 0.85, and constant turbine speed of 180 rpm, built in Qianyanzhou, China, could remove 2.38 kg of CH 4 and reduce 375.52 kg of CO 2 in one day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human society and ecosystems are impacted by climate extremes more than by climate averages. In contrast with climate extremes that are driven by individual climatic variables, compound climate extremes stem from a combination of multiple climatic drivers and usually lead to more severe risks than the former extremes do. The influences of the drivers for compound climate extremes are strengthening under global warming. Firstly, this review details the development of the definition of compound climate extremes over recent years and describes different types of events, such as compound drought and heatwave extremes (CDHEs), compound day and night heat extremes (CDNHEs), and compound flooding (CF). Secondly, historical trends in compound climate extremes in China over the past half-century, and projections of future trends under different scenarios, are discussed. For example, this study points out that a large part of China has experienced longer, stronger, and more frequent CDHEs than other parts of the country. CDHEs have followed a significantly increasing trend since the 1990s, and this trend is projected to strengthen further under different scenarios in the future. Thirdly, this study reviews different potential causes for compound climate extremes, including the internal variability of the climate system (e.g., land and atmosphere feedbacks, large-scale circulation patterns) and external anthropogenic forcings (e.g., urbanization and anthropogenic emissions). In this study, we summarize risks from different perspectives by considering interactions between hazards, vulnerability, and exposure. Many studies show that risks to infrastructural damage and population exposure are projected to increase in the future, and that crop yields and ecosystem gross primary production are likely to reduce. Finally, we generalize our study and show that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive study of different combinations of compound events. We argue that it is important that we understand the key dynamic and thermal processes that are modulated by specific drivers and investigate the uncertainty in the projected variabilities for compound climate extremes. This requires interdisciplinary collaboration and will allow appropriate risk adaptation strategies to be developed. There has been great progress in research into compound climate extremes; however, an improved understanding of the mechanisms and risks is necessary as a theoretical basis for more effective climate adaptation policies. • China has experienced large increases in compound climate extremes, and this upward trend will persist into the future. • The impacts of internal climatic variability and external anthropogenic forcings are main drivers. • Great risks arise in human health, crop yield, ecosystems, and infrastructure due to compound climate extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Annual trends in phytoplankton and its drivers (local, regional, global) are quantified. • TGD markedly altered the association between tested variables and phytoplankton. • Human activities and ENSO had both direct and indirect effects on phytoplankton. • Nutrients, hydrology and meteorology mediated these cascading effects. Human activities and climate change are two major stressors affecting lake ecosystems as well as phytoplankton communities worldwide. However, how the temporal dynamics of phytoplankton are directly or indirectly linked to anthropogenic activities and climatic oscillation remains unclear. We assessed the annual trends (1988–2018) in phytoplankton abundance (PA) in Lake Dongting, China and related it to five groups of variables characterizing human activities, global climate oscillation, water nutrients, hydrology, and meteorology. We found a significant increase in PA, urbanization (Upop), total nitrogen (TN), fertilizer application (FA), number of summer days (SU), and the warm speed duration index (WSDI) and a significant decrease in the water discharge of three inlets (TIWD) and the sediment discharge of three inlets (TISD) and four tributaries (FTSD) and the net sediment deposition (NSD). However, no significant annual trends were observed for the number of rainstorm days (R50mm), the simple precipitation intensity index (SDII) and yearly anomalies of El Niño-Southern oscillation events (ENSO i). Cross-correlation Function analyses demonstrated that the operation of the Three George Dam (TGD) strengthened the effects of hydrology, rainfall patterns and ENSO i on phytoplankton, but strongly weakened the association between water nutrients, human activities and phytoplankton abundance. Path analysis revealed that TP, TN, FA, R50 mm as well as WSDI had a direct positive effect on PA, while a direct negative effect was found for ENSO i , NSD and TISD. Human activities (Upop and FA), warming (WSDI and SU), and rainfall patterns (SDII and R50 mm) exerted indirect controls on phytoplankton through changes in water nutrients and hydrology. Climate change (ENSO i) had a direct effect on PA, but also showed twelve indirect pathways via changes in hydrology and meteorology (both positive and negative effects were found). Overall, meteorology contributed most markedly to the variations of PA (29.3%), followed by hydrology (25.3%), human activities (24%), water nutrients (10.5%), and ENSO i (1.9%). Our results highlight a strongly causal connection between human activities as well as global climate change and phytoplankton and the benefits of considering multiple environmental drivers in determining the temporal dynamics of lake biotic communities. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]