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River fish diversity is threatened by anthropogenic environmental alteration to landscapes. The early life‐history stages of fish play an important role in maintaining diversity and population recruitment and can be heavily influenced by landscape patterns. Information on temporal and spatial distribution patterns of fish eggs and larvae is also important for biodiversity conservation and management of fish resources.The Yangtze River possesses a high diversity of fishes, including many commercially important species. The economy along the lower reach of the river is well developed, and most of the area is experiencing high pressure from human impacts. This section of the Yangtze River connects with the largest freshwater lake in China at the upstream end and flows into the estuary at the downstream end. These two landscape features are likely to have a significant impact upon the spatial distributions of fish egg and larval assemblages.Environmental variables, fish eggs, and larval assemblages were sampled in three locations, at Hukou, Anqing, and Jingjiang, in the lower reach of the Yangtze River. The results suggest that the higher number of species and greater abundance in upstream sites reflect the critical function of connectivity of Poyang Lake with the river for fish recruitment in the lower Yangtze. The delayed bloom of larval fish, occurrence of estuarine species, and a lower species number and abundance of freshwater fish downstream reflect the influence of tidal intrusion from the estuary.This study highlights the value of maintaining natural river–lakes connectivity in the Yangtze River as a conservation measure. The connected river–lake system should be designated as a priority area for fish resource protection in the lower reach of the Yangtze River. We recommend further measures to break down barriers between the river and other lakes and to restore the natural lateral connectivity of the floodplain ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project compiled 463,530 instrumental observations of daily temperature, precipitation and sunshine at up to 319 stations in China between 1912 and 1951. The principal sources are monthly reports of the Institute of Meteorology, Nanjing, observatories in Japanese‐occupied Manchuria, and the Japanese Army in North China. Gross errors, rounding errors and inhomogeneities are identified. The new dataset is temporally and spatially consistent with existing datasets of monthly temperature, but reports higher precipitation and sunshine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Forum’s first case study of a learned woman’s experiences, Harriet Zurndorfer surveys the nature of learned culture in China, concluding with the intellectual context in which her subject had to function at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. She describes how Wang Zhaoyuan became an accepted scholar and her subsequent reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of "Review of New Foreign Titles on Medical Science" (RNFTMS) in the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences library in Beijing, China. The Chinese libraries has been publishing the RNFTMS since 1994 in a quarterly basis with the participation of the Springer, German publishing company, and have received more than 1000 new biological and medical books free. On the other hand, tables are provided which shows RNFTMS number of books reviewed and purchased, however, readers can learn more about books on Online Public Access Catalogue which link to the book reviews.