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• An enhanced sustainable development index (ESDI) was developed. • ESDIs of north, south, and whole China have decreased, decreased and increased. • Enlarging regional inequalities mainly arise from the northern half China. • Dramatic CO2 emissions increase is responsible for ESDI/inequalities changes. Accelerating warming has led to intensified natural disasters and a lower margin for greenhouse gas emissions, affecting both development sustainability and regional inequalities. However, the impacts have seldom been studied, especially in fast-developing countries with large annual CO 2 emissions and frequent agricultural disasters, such as China. We have developed an enhanced sustainable development index (ESDI), which retains the base formula of the sustainable development index (SDI) but restructures the ecological component, replacing the material footprint (MF) with agricultural disaster intensity. The modification avoids overestimation of carbon emission impacts and incorporates a new dimension into sustainability estimation. The temporal variabilities and spatial imbalance of the China ESDI were characterized in 1997-2018 using linear trends, hot spots, the Thiel index, and variation coefficient analysis. The results showed 1) an overall ESDI decrease in China with differences between northern and southern half China (north decreasing and south increasing) and 2) the spatial inequities of development sustainability, mainly arising from the northern half China, continued to increase. The low sustainability clustered in the northern half, and the high sustainability clustered in the southern half. Correspondingly, the development sustainability of the former was more imbalanced than that of the latter. 3) The dramatic CO 2 emissions increase since the late 2000s mainly accounts for the ESDI decrease in all of China and the northern half of China and is responsible for the enlarging sustainability imbalance as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two new Juniper tree-ring-width (TRW) chronologies spanning more than 500 years were developed in the Yellow River source area, North Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (NE-QTP). For the two studied sites, located approximately 50km apart, split correlation and coherence analysis reveal unstable tree-growth responses to local moisture availability. While significant correlations are obtained with April–June local precipitation, Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and river flow from 1948/1954 to 1998 and from 1948/1954 to 1970s, these correlations vanish for the time period 1970s-1998. The local instrumental climate data (precipitation, PDSI and river flow) exhibit opposite correlations with large scale modes of variability (El Niño Southern Oscillation, ENSO, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation, PDO) before and after the 1977 PDO shift. One tree-ring chronology is coherent and anti-phased with instrumental ENSO/PDO indices at 5.2-year frequency. On the longer time span, this TRW chronology is compared with PDO reconstructed from historical Chinese data. This comparison also exhibits unstable multi-decadal relationships, notably in the mid 19th century. Altogether, the comparison between our two chronologies, local instrumental climate records, and ENSO/PDO indices suggest a cautious use of local TRW records for paleoclimate reconstructions. Further studies are needed to explore both the spatial coherency of tree-ring records and the temporal stability of their response to local and large scale climate variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The mean tree growth rate (MTGR) was analyzed over the monsoonal Tibetan Plateau. • MTGRs of the upper three transects reached unprecedented high values since the 1980s. • MTGR in the lowest transect dropped sharply to a minimum under drought stress. • The majority of tree growth has benefited from recent summer warming. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is characterized by the world's highest timberlines, largest altitudinal range of forest distribution, and high warming rates. Whether the growth of most forests benefits from climate warming or is inhibited by warming-induced drought stress is still under debate. To understand this question, we collected tree-ring width (TRW) data from 6762 trees at 203 sites that contain 12 genera over the monsoonal TP (MTP) with an elevation range between 975 and 4478 m a.s.l. All sites were equally split into four transects along their altitudinal ranking. The mean tree growth rate (MTGR) of each transect was developed by assembling standardized TRW records. Our results suggest that MTGRs of the upper three transects (2992–4478 m) were stimulated by an increase in the summer (May-September) minimum temperature and have experienced unprecedented high values since the 1980s over the past three to four centuries. In contrast, warming-associated drought stress resulted in a sharp growth drop and minimum MTGR in the lowest transect (975–2970 m) during the 2000s, which was most pronounced in the Himalayan Mountains. We conclude that the majority of tree growth on the MTP has benefited from recent summer warming. The results are robust regardless of using alternative detrending methods, but still could be susceptible to the small replications of some species, outdated end years, oversimplification of the regional climate conditions, and varying growth response within each transect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We investigate transshipment strategies for online retailers with dynamic demand. [•] We propose three convenient heuristic rules for online retailers’ transshipment problem. [•] We identify a heuristic rule which is computationally simple and cost-effective. [•] We develop a hybrid strategy that combines allocation planning and transshipment rule. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]