Expansion of cropland area and formation of the eastern farming-pastoral ecotone in northern China during the twentieth century

Land cover changes induced by historical cultivation in ecologically fragile areas involving important issues such as environmental change, ecology, and human sustainability are particularly worthy of attention. This paper reconstructs the spatial distribution of cultivated areas at the county level in the eastern farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China for four time periods during the twentieth century. The paper also analyzes how the location of cultivation ratio contours of 15 and 30 %, representing the boundaries of agricultural areas, have moved and the formation process of farming-pastoral ecotone patterns during this period. The study concludes that the area and ratio of cultivated land fluctuations increased during the twentieth century. The boundaries of the cultivation ratio contours of 15 and 30 % continually moved west and north. Moving north took priority over the other directions during the period of 1916–1940, when its center moved the farthest during the twentieth century, and the boundaries primarily moved westward during 1940–1980 and northwestward during 1980–2000. The distance, direction, and extent of the movement of the cultivation boundaries are all related to agricultural area expansion processes during this period, finally resulting in the creation of the modern farming-pastoral ecotone pattern.     

1780-1819年华北平原水旱灾害社会响应方式的转变

历史时期水旱灾害的社会响应典型案例重建是气候变化影响与适应研究的重要方向。选取1780-1819年间华北平原发生的4次典型水旱灾害(1785、1792、1813年旱灾及1801年水灾),基于清代档案资料和历史气候重建结果提取代用指标,对其灾情严重程度、政府救灾力度和灾民行为进行了量化描述和对比分析,发现:①4次灾害中赈济密度(赈灾物资数/成灾州县数)逐次下降,1813年旱灾中降至不足1785年旱灾的1/6,政府救灾力度遭到严重削弱;②灾民行为日益失控,从1792年旱灾和1801年水灾中的大规模跨区域迁徙,发展到1813年旱灾中大量加入盗匪和起义军,走向暴力。这一转变的发生,是在自然(气候突变、灾害增多)、社会(政府财政危机、人地矛盾激化)不利背景之下,政府与灾民的互动关系日趋消极的结果。     

Famine relief,public order,and revolts: interaction between government and refugees as a result of drought/flood during 1790–1911 in the North China Plain

Regional Environmental Change - As a direct result of climate change and extreme weather events, refugee migration has attracted worldwide concern. In this study, we select the North China Plain...     

近20年我国农村自然灾害救济拨款时空变化规律分析

以人均相对灾害救济强度为指标，利用ＥＯＦ方法分析了１９７８～１９９４年我国农村救灾款发放的时空分异规律，发现其５种主要空间分布形式；在东部地区，１９８４年以前华北救灾强度较东北和江南相对偏大，以后则相反。     

Temporal variability of iron concentrations and fractions in wetland waters in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

Chemical forms, reactivities and transformation of iron fractions in marshy waters were investigated with cross-flow filtration technique to study the iron environmental behavior. Iron fractions were divided into four parts: acid-labile iron (pre-acidification of unfiltered marshy water samples, 0.7 μm), high-molecular-weight iron (0.7-0.05 μm), medium-molecular-weight iron (0.05-0.01 μm), and low-molecular-weight iron ( 0.01 μm). The cross-flow filtration suggested that iron primarily exist in both the 0.7 μm and 0.01 μm size fractions in marshy waters. Rainfall is the key for rain-fed wetland to determine fate of iron by changing the aquatic biochemical conditions. By monitoring the variation of iron concentrations and fractions over three years, it was found that dissolved iron and acid-labile iron concentrations exhibit a large variation extent under different annual rainfalls from 2006 to 2008. The seasonal variation for iron species proved that the surface temperature could control some conversion reactions of iron in marshy waters. Low- molecular-weight iron would convert to acid-labile iron gradually with temperature decreasing. The photochemical reactions of iron fractions, especially low-molecular-weight iron had occurred under solar irradiation. The relative proportion of low-molecular-weight in total dissolved iron ranging from 28.3% to 43.2% were found during the day time, which proved that the observed decreasing concentration of acid lability iron was caused by its degradation to low molecular weight iron.     

Effects of Duststorms on the Air Pollution in Beijing

The objective of this study was to investigate the air pollutionin Beijing before, during, and after duststorms occur. There aretwo different phenomena of air pollution in Beijing during a duststorm; one being related to the concentration of particulatematter and the second related to gaseous chemical pollutant concentrations. In this study, the concentrations of the chemicalpollutants, such as SO₂, NO_x and CO, were high prior to the occurrence of the duststorms. At the beginning of the two duststorms studied, the air quality related to these chemicalconstituents was improved due to a strong wind blowing away the chemical pollutants, which caused a decrease in the concentrations of SO₂, CO and NO_x. During the duststorm, the concentration of particulate matter, quantified by PM₁₀, wasobserved to increase and the atmospheric visibility decreased.     

Migration and reclamation in Northeast China in response to climatic disasters in North China over the past 300?years

Climatic disaster-induced migration and its effects on land exploitation of new settlements is a crucial topic that needs to be researched to better understand the impact of climate change and human adaptation. This paper focuses on the process and mechanism of migrant–reclamation in Northeast China in response to climatic disasters over the past 300 years. The research used comparative analysis of key interlinked factors in this response involving drought/flood events, population, cropland area, farmer revolts, administrations establishment, and land reclamation policies. It draws the following conclusions: (1) seven peaks of migrants–reclamation in Northeast China were evident, most likely when frequent climatic disasters happened in North China, such as the drought–flood in 1851–1859, drought in 1875–1877, and drought 1927–1929; (2) six instances of policy transformation adopted to cope with extreme climatic events, including distinctive examples like changing to a firm policy prohibiting migration in 1740 and a subsequent lifting of that prohibition in 1860; and (3) the fast expansion of the northern agricultural boundary since the middle of the nineteenth century in this area benefited from a climate change trend from a cold period into a warm period. Altogether, over the past 300 years, extreme climatic disasters in North China have deepened the contradiction between the limited land resources and the rapidly increasing population and have resulted in migration and reclamation in Northeast China. Climate, policy, and reclamation constructed an organic chain of response that dominated the land use/cover change process of Northeast China.     

Reconstruction of cropland change over the past 300 years in the Jing-Jin-Ji area,China

Regional Environmental Change - Land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) has strongly influenced the global and regional climate and environmental change, especially over the last three centuries....     

Global Environmental Change and National Security of China

The concept of security has been redefined since the 1990s. As one of the important factors threatening human security, global environmental change has become a new challenge to the national security and social development. The national security problems caused by global environmental change, on one hand, are closely related to the global environmental problems, and, on the other hand, are manifested in the conflicts of international affairs. The global environmental change severely challenges the future de...