Long-term trends and spatiotemporal variations of climate comfort in China during 1966-2016

Climate comfort and its variability are of great importance to human comfort, health and well-being, as humans may suffer dire consequences when they are exposed to the environments with heat or cold stress. The climate comfort index represented the integrated effects of meteorological variables on the human thermal sensation. The annual and seasonal climate comfort index values were calculated based on the monthly data of the temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed from 591 stations in China between 1966 and 2016. Using the empirical orthogonal function analysis, the dominant modes of climate comfort index variations were extracted by the first two modes, which accounted for more than 50% of the total variance. The results showed that the annual and seasonal climate comfort index values displayed a latitudinal gradient, and increased towards the south except for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The most frequently perceived thermal sensations were labeled as ?cold?, ?comfortable?, ?cold? and ?extremely cold? conditions from spring to winter, respectively. For annual and seasonal climate comfort index, the consistent increasing trend was detected in most regions of China in the first mode. The sensitive areas were mainly located in the central, eastern and southern China in winter, while in the northern and western China in summer. In the second mode, the fluctuations between upward and downward trends were observed. The sensitive areas were located in the central China in summer, in the southwestern and southern China in autumn, and in the northern China in winter. This study provides the important information for the improvement of human settlement comfort.

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Patterns and trends of high-impact weather in China during 1959–2014

Natural Hazards and Earth System Science ◽

10.5194/nhess-16-855-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 855-869 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jun Shi ◽

Kangmin Wen ◽

Linli Cui

Keyword(s):

Southern China ◽

Eastern China ◽

High Impact ◽

Northeastern China ◽

Central China ◽

Western China ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

High Mountain ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation ◽

High Impact Weather

Abstract. The spatial and temporal characteristics of the frequencies of four types of high-impact weather (HIW), i.e. snowfall, thunderstorms, fog and hailstorms, were analysed in China during 1959–2014. Results indicate a significant decrease in the number of snowfall days, thunderstorm days and thunderstorm spells in all six regions of China, with regional decreasing rates of 0.1–3.4 days, 1.6–5.1 days and 0.23–0.77 times per decade respectively. The number of foggy days, hailstorm days and snowfall spells decreased at rates of 0.2–1.8 days, 0.1–0.7 days and 0.14–0.44 times per decade respectively in almost all regions and fog and hailstorm spells decreased at rates of 0.06–0.17 and 0.001–0.043 times per decade respectively in most regions of China. Spatially, there was more snowfall in northeastern China and western China, and more thunderstorms in southern China and southwestern China. The number of fog events was larger in some high mountain stations, eastern China and central China. Hailstorms were concentrated on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Over the past 56 years, snowfall days, thunderstorm days and thunderstorm spells decreased in most parts of China, and hailstorm days decreased in northeastern China, most parts of northern China and Tibet, southern Qinghai and western Sichuan. The spatial trends of foggy days, foggy spells, snowfall spells and hailstorm spells were not significant in most parts of China. With global warming, some types of HIW are likely to increase in their intensities, so more mitigation and adaptation strategies are still essential for local government and the public in China.

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Research on the Influence of Energy Utilization and Economic Development on Human Well-Being in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010196 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 196

Author(s):

Mengmeng Meng ◽

Weiguo Fan ◽

Jianchang Lu ◽

Xiaobin Dong ◽

Hejie Wei

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Well Being ◽

Resource Acquisition ◽

Energy Utilization ◽

Western China ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Four Dimensions ◽

Generalized Matrix ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau ◽

Means Of Production

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a typical resource-rich but economically backward region in western China, and it is of great urgency to improve human well-being. Combined with previous scholars’ research and the characteristics of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, this paper constructs an index system of human well-being including four dimensions: income and consumption, means of production, means of subsistence, and resource acquisition ability. Then, it uses generalized matrix method estimations to measure the influence of energy utilization and economic development on human well-being and makes a regression analysis on the influence of energy utilization and economic development on human well-being in various provinces in this region. It is found that per capita GDP and coke utilization promote the well-being of all dimensions, while the urban registered unemployment rate only promotes the well-being of means of subsistence. The utilization of gasoline and natural gas promotes income and consumption and inhibits the means of subsistence and resource acquisition ability, but they have opposite effects on means of production. The impacts of energy utilization and economic development in different provinces on human well-being are different. This study is of great significance to the related research aiming at improving people’s livelihood and promoting regional development.

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Occurrence and source apportionment of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in the atmosphere in China

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-19-14107-2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (22) ◽

pp. 14107-14117 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Deming Han ◽

Yingge Ma ◽

Cheng Huang ◽

Xufeng Zhang ◽

Hao Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Degradation Products ◽

Southern China ◽

Eastern China ◽

Northern China ◽

Central China ◽

Western China ◽

Perfluoroalkyl Acids ◽

Average Value ◽

Pmf Model ◽

Air Sampler

Abstract. Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are a form of toxic pollutant that can be transported across the globe and accumulated in the bodies of wildlife and humans. A nationwide geographical investigation considering atmospheric PFAAs via a passive air sampler (PAS) based on XAD (a styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer) was conducted in 23 different provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions in China, which provides an excellent chance to investigate their occurrences, spatial trends, and potential sources. The total atmospheric concentrations of 13 PFAAs (n=268) were 6.19–292.57 pg m−3, with an average value of 39.84±28.08 pg m−3, which were higher than other urban levels but lower than point source measurements. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was the dominant PFAA (20.6 %), followed by perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), and perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFPeA). An increasing seasonal trend of PFAA concentrations was shown as summer < autumn < spring < winter, which may be initiated by stagnant meteorological conditions. Spatially, the content of PFAAs displayed a declining gradient trend of central China > northern China > eastern China > north-eastern China > south-western China > north-western China > southern China, and Henan contributed the largest proportion of PFAAs. Four sources of PFAAs were identified using a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model, including PFOS-based products (26.1 %), products based on PFOA and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA; 36.6 %), degradation products of fluorotelomer-based products (15.5 %), and an unknown source (21.8 %).

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Regionalization and Spatiotemporal Variation of Drought in China Based on Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (1961–2013)

Advances in Meteorology ◽

10.1155/2015/950262 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Xiongfei Liu ◽

Shixin Wang ◽

Yi Zhou ◽

Futao Wang ◽

Wenjun Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southern China ◽

Central China ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Severe Drought ◽

Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index ◽

Spatiotemporal Variations ◽

Drought Duration ◽

Mk Test ◽

Tree Edge ◽

Edge Removal

China is considered to be one of the most drought prone countries. This study is dedicated to analyzing the regionalization and spatiotemporal variations of drought based on the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, which covers the period 1961–2013 across 810 stations in China. Using Spatial “K”luster Analysis by Tree Edge Removal method, China was divided into eight regions: southwest (SW), northeast (NE), north (N), southeast (SE), Yangtze River (YR), northwest (NW), central China (C), and Tibet Plateau (TP). The spatiotemporal variations of drought characteristics indicated that the drought count in NE and C was generally high. Southern China and NW had suffered long drought duration and extreme severity. The MK test results show that stations with significant drying trends mainly locate in SW, N, NW, and C. The severe drought frequency was very high in 1990s and 2000s. Furthermore, more attention should be paid to abnormal less precipitation in summer and abnormal high temperature in spring in SW, NE, N, and C. Besides, abnormal less precipitation is the main factor of drought in SE and YR in whole year. This study is anticipated to support the water resources management, and to promote the realization of environmental protection and agricultural production.

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Associated Determinants of Surface Urban Heat Islands across 1449 Cities in China

Advances in Meteorology ◽

10.1155/2019/4892714 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Yuanzheng Li ◽

Lan Wang ◽

Min Liu ◽

Guosong Zhao ◽

Tian He ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Southern China ◽

Well Being ◽

Urban Heat Islands ◽

Western China ◽

Machine Learning Method ◽

Learning Method ◽

Heat Islands ◽

Urban Heat

The thermal environment is closely related to human well-being. Determinants of surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) have been extensively studied. Nevertheless, some research fields remain blank or have conflicting findings, which need to be further addressed. Particularly, few studies focus on drivers of SUHIs in massive cities with different sizes under various contexts at large scales. Using multisource data, we explored 11 determinants of surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) for 1449 cities in different ecological contexts throughout China in 2010, adopting the Spearman and partial correlation analysis and machine learning method. The main results were as follows: (1) Significant positive partial correlations existed between daytime SUHII and the differences in nighttime light intensity and built-up intensity between cities and their corresponding villages except in arid or semiarid western China. The differences in the enhanced vegetation index were generally partially negatively correlated with daytime and nighttime SUHII. The differences in white sky albedo were usually partially negatively correlated with nighttime SUHII. The mean air temperature was partially positively correlated with nighttime SUHII in 40% of cases. Only a few significant partial relationships existed between SUHII and urban area, total population, and differences in aerosol optical depth. The explanation rates during daytime were larger than during nighttime in 72% of cases. The largest and smallest rates occurred during summer days in humid cold northeastern China (63.84%) and in southern China (10.44%), respectively. (2) Both the daytime and nighttime SUHII could be well determined by drivers using the machine learning method. The RMSE ranged from 0.49°C to 1.54°C at a national scale. The simulation SUHII values were always significantly correlated with the actual SUHII values. The simulation accuracies were always higher during nighttime than daytime. The highest accuracies occurred in central-northern China and were lowest in western China during both daytime and nighttime.

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Population Genetics of Bactrocera minax (Diptera: Tephritidae) in China Based on nad4 Gene Sequence

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects10080236 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 236

Author(s):

Feng Hong ◽

Lizhi Gao ◽

Hong-Liang Han ◽

Pan Wang ◽

Jia Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Genetic Diversity ◽

Genetic Structure ◽

Southern China ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Discrete Distribution ◽

Central China ◽

Western China ◽

Species Dispersal ◽

Haplotype Networks ◽

Nad4 Gene

Bactrocera minax (Enderlein) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is an important citrus pest in Asia with a non-uniform distribution. In some locations, it had been reported to occur but was either eradicated or disappeared itself. To understand species dispersal of B. minax, we collected and analyzed 359 individuals from 18 localities in China. One mitochondrial DNA gene fragment (nad4) was used to investigate the genetic diversity and population genetic structure of B. minax. The populations were divided by phylogenetic analyses and statistical parsimony haplotype networks into three branches: a Central China (CC) branch, a Western China (WC) branch, and a Southern China (SC) branch. A total of 93 variable sites (15.6% of the 595 bp alignment) and 91 unique haplotypes were observed in the 359 individuals scored from the nad4 gene of the 18 B. minax populations. This indicated that B. minax had a high level of genetic diversity. These populations also showed a discrete distribution in both the scatter plots of genetic versus geographical distance for pairwise population comparisons and the median-joining network of haplotypes, which revealed the strong genetic structure of B. minax.

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High Diversity of Small Insectivorous Mammals on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and First Description of Karyotype for four Endemics of China

10.21203/rs.3.rs-793070/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Svetlana V. Pavlova ◽

Vladimir S. Lebedev ◽

Vasily D. Yakushov ◽

Yongke Zhu ◽

Yun Fang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Molecular Genetic ◽

B Chromosome ◽

Central China ◽

Western China ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Phylogenetic Groups ◽

The North ◽

Molecular Genetic Data ◽

Distribution Ranges ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

Abstract Among seven species of the order Eulipotyphla (from southern Gansu and northern Sichuan Provinces, Central China) studied cytogenetically, karyotypes of one talpid species, Uropsilus aff. soricipes (2n = 36, NFa = 54), and three soricid species, Chodsigoa hypsibia (2n = 65, NFa = 66), Sorex cansulus (2n = 42, NFa = 64) and Sorex thibetanus (2n = 42, NFa = 60), are described cytogenetically for the first time. All four species are endemic to China with distribution ranges restricted to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and adjacent mountain ranges. The Ch. hypsibia karyotype consists of mostly acrocentric autosomes and one metacentric pair of autosomes; besides, a B chromosome was identified. No polymorphism was detected among karyotypes of other species, including shrews Sorex bedfordiae (2n = 26, NFa = 44), Anourosorex squamipes (2n = 48, NFa = 92) and Crocidura suaveolens (2n = 40, NFa = 44). The Chinese shrew mole U. aff. soricipes and three shrew species (S. bedfordiae, Ch. hypsibia and A. squamipes) represent autochthonous fauna of Central/Western China, whereas S. thibetanus, S. cansulus and C. suaveolens belong to phylogenetic groups occurring mostly to the north and west from China; therefore, they should be considered relatively recent colonisers. Thus, considering the relationships of the species within phylogenetic groups, our results on karyotypes are in good agreement with molecular genetic data.

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2015 and 2016 winter-time air pollution in China: SO<sub>2</sub> emission changes derived from a WRF/Chem-EnKF coupled data assimilation system

10.5194/acp-2018-1152 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Dan Chen ◽

Zhiquan Liu ◽

Junmei Ban ◽

Min Chen

Keyword(s):

Data Assimilation ◽

Emission Reduction ◽

Emission Inventory ◽

Southern China ◽

Control Strategies ◽

River Delta ◽

Central China ◽

Western China ◽

Data Assimilation System ◽

Assimilation System

Abstract. Ambient pollutants in China changes significantly in recent years due to strict control strategies implemented by the government. The control strategies also bring uncertainties to both the bottom-up emission inventory and the model-ready gridded emission inputs especially in winter season. In this study, we updated the WRF/Chem-EnKF Data Assimilation system to quantitatively estimate the gridded hourly SO2 emissions using hourly surface observations as constraints. Different from our previous study, in which meteorology and emission were both perturbed to obtain larger spread aiming to improve forecast skills; in this study, only emission was perturbed to ensure analyzed emission purely reflect necessary adjustments due to the emission uncertainties. In addition, direct emissions instead of emission scaling factors were used as analysis variable, which allowed for the detection of new emission sources. 2010 MEIC emission inventory (for January) was used as priori to generate 2015 and 2016 January analyzed emissions. The SO2 emission changing trends for northern, western and southern China from 2010 to 2015 and that from 2015 to 2016 (for the month of January) were investigated. The January 2010–2015 differences showed inhomogeneous change patterns in different regions: (1) significant emission reduction in southern China, (2) significant emission reduction in larger cities but widely increase in surrounding suburban and rural regions for northern China which may indicate the missing raw coal combustion for winter heating that not taken into account in the priori emission inventory; (3) significantly large emission increase in western China due to the energy expansion strategy. This not only reflected the changes during the five years, but also combined the uncertainties in the priori emissions. The January 2015–2016 differences showed widely emission reduction from 2015 to 2016, indicating the stricter control strategy fully executed nationwide. These changes were corresponded to facts in reality, indicating that the updated DA system was capable to detect the emission deficiencies and optimize the emission. By generating the hourly analyzed emissions, the diurnal pattern of emissions (in terms of hourly factors) were also obtained. Forecast experiments showed the improvements by using analyzed emissions were much larger in southern China than that in northern and western China. For Sichuan Basin, Central China, Yangzi River Delta, and Pearl River Delta, BIAS and RMSE decreased by 61.8 %–78.2 % and 27.9 %–52.2 %, respectively, and correlation coefficients increased by 12.5 %–47.1 %. However, the improvement in northern and western China were limited due to small spread. Another limitation of the study is that the analyzed emissions are still model dependent, as the ensembles are conducted through WRF/Chem model and thus the performances of ensembles are model dependent.

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High diversity of small insectivorous mammals on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and first description of karyotype for four endemics of China

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-03809-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Svetlana V. Pavlova ◽

Vladimir S. Lebedev ◽

Vasily D. Yakushov ◽

Yongke Zhu ◽

Yun Fang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Molecular Genetic ◽

B Chromosome ◽

Central China ◽

Western China ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Phylogenetic Groups ◽

The North ◽

Molecular Genetic Data ◽

Distribution Ranges ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

AbstractAmong seven species of the order Eulipotyphla (from southern Gansu and northern Sichuan Provinces, Central China) studied cytogenetically, karyotypes of one talpid species, Uropsilus aff. soricipes (2n = 36, NFa = 54), and three soricid species, Chodsigoa hypsibia (2n = 65, NFa = 66), Sorex cansulus (2n = 42, NFa = 64) and Sorex thibetanus (2n = 42, NFa = 60), are described cytogenetically for the first time. All four species are endemic to China with distribution ranges restricted to the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and adjacent mountain ranges. The Ch. hypsibia karyotype consists of mostly acrocentric autosomes and one metacentric pair of autosomes; besides, a B chromosome was identified. No polymorphism was detected among karyotypes of other species, including shrews Sorex bedfordiae (2n = 26, NFa = 44), Anourosorex squamipes (2n = 48, NFa = 92) and Crocidura suaveolens (2n = 40, NFa = 44). The Chinese shrew mole U. aff. soricipes and three shrew species (S. bedfordiae, Ch. hypsibia and A. squamipes) represent autochthonous fauna of Central/Western China, whereas S. thibetanus, S. cansulus and C. suaveolens belong to phylogenetic groups occurring mostly to the north and west from China; therefore, they should be considered relatively recent colonisers. Thus, considering the relationships of the species within phylogenetic groups, our results on karyotypes are in good agreement with molecular genetic data.

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Patterns and trends of high-impact weathers in China during 1959–2014

Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/nhessd-3-6149-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (10) ◽

pp. 6149-6184

Author(s):

J. Shi ◽

K. Wen ◽

L. Cui

Keyword(s):

Eastern China ◽

High Impact ◽

Central China ◽

Western China ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

High Mountain ◽

Weather Phenomenon ◽

The Government ◽

Social Vulnerabilities ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

Abstract. The spatial and temporal characteristics in the frequencies of four types of high-impact weathers (HIWs), i.e. snowfall, thunderstorm, foggy and hailstorm weathers were analyzed in China by using daily weather phenomenon data from 604 stations. Results indicate that snowfall, thunderstorm, foggy and hailstorm days showed significant decreasing trends with rates of 2.5, 2.6, 0.8 and 0.5 days per decade respectively, and snowfall, thunderstorm, foggy and hailstorm weather processes decreased significantly at rates of 0.3, 0.4, 0.1 and 0.1 times per decade during 1959–2014. Spatially, snowfall weathers were more in northeastern and western China, and thunderstorm weathers were more in southern and southwestern China. Foggy weathers were more in some high mountain stations, eastern China and central China, and hailstorm weathers were concentrated on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Over the past 56 years, snowfall days, thunderstorm days and thunderstorm weather processes decreased in most parts of China, with decreasing rates of 1.0–6.0 days, 1.5–8.0 days and 0.2–1.0 times per decade respectively. Hailstorm days decreased in northeastern China and most parts of northern and western China at a rate of 0.2–4.5 days per decade. The spatial trends of foggy days, foggy weather processes and snowfall weather processes were not significant in most parts of China. With climate change and rapidly economic development, more policies and strategies of reducing social vulnerabilities and/or exposures to HIWs are essential for the government and social publics.

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