Spatiotemporal variability of rain-on-snow events in the arid region of Northwest China

Rain-on-snow(ROS)events involve rainfall on snow surfaces,and the occurrence of ROS events can exacerbate water scarcity and ecosystem vulnerability in the arid region of Northwest China(ARNC).In this study,using daily snow depth data and daily meteorological data from 68 meteorological stations provided by the China Meteorological Administration National Meteorological Information Centre,we investigated the spatiotemporal variability of ROS events in the ARNC from 1978 to 2015 and examined the factors affecting these events and possible changes of future ROS events in the ARNC.The results showed that ROS events in the ARNC mainly occurred from October to May of the following year and were largely distributed in the Qilian Mountains,Tianshan Mountains,Ili River Valley,Tacheng Prefecture,and Altay Prefecture,with the Ili River Valley,Tacheng City,and Altay Mountains exhibiting the most occurrences.Based on the intensity of ROS events,the areas with the highest risk of flooding resulting from ROS events in the ARNC were the Tianshan Mountains,Ili River Valley,Tacheng City,and Altay Mountains.The number and intensity of ROS events in the ARNC largely increased from 1978 to 2015,mainly influenced by air temperature and the number of rainfall days.However,due to the snowpack abundance in areas experiencing frequent ROS events in the ARNC,snowpack changes exerted slight impact on ROS events,which is a temporary phenomenon.Furthermore,elevation imposed lesser impact on ROS events in the ARNC than other factors.In the ARNC,the start time of rainfall and the end time of snowpack gradually advanced from the spring of the current year to the winter of the previous year,while the end time of rainfall and the start time of snowpack gradually delayed from autumn to winter.This may lead to more ROS events in winter in the future.These results could provide a sound basis for managing water resources and mitigating related disasters caused by ROS events in the ARNC.

Spatio-temporal variation of depth to groundwater level and its driving factors in arid and semi-arid regions of India

Climate change and increasing anthropogenic activities,such as over-exploitation of groundwater,are exerting unavoidable stress on groundwater resources.This study investigated the spatio-temporal variation of depth to groundwater level(DGWL)and the impacts of climatic(precipitation,maximum temperature,and minimum temperature)and anthropogenic(gross district product(GDP),population,and net irrigated area(NIA))variables on DGWL during 1994-2020.The study considered DGWL in 113 observation wells and piezometers located in arid western plains(Barmer and Jodhpur districts)and semi-arid eastern plains(Jaipur,Ajmer,Dausa,and Tonk districts)of Rajasthan State,India.Statistical methods were employed to examine the annual and seasonal patterns of DGWL,and the generalized additive model(GAM)was used to determine the impacts of climatic and anthropogenic variables on DGWL.During 1994-2020,except for Barmer District,where the mean annual DGWL was almost constant(around 26.50 m),all other districts exhibited increase in DGWL,with Ajmer District experiencing the most increase.The results also revealed that 36 observation wells and piezometers showed a statistically significant annual increasing trend in DGWL and 34 observation wells and piezometers exhibited a statistically significant decreasing trend in DGWL.Similarly,32 observation wells and piezometers showed an statistically significant increasing trend and 37 observation wells and piezometers showed a statistically significant decreasing trend in winter;33 observation wells and piezometers indicated a statistically significant increasing trend and 34 had a statistically significant decreasing trend in post-monsoon;35 observation wells and piezometers exhibited a statistically significant increasing trend and 32 observation wells and piezometers showed a statistically significant decreasing trend in pre-monsoon;and 36 observation wells and piezometers reflected a statistically significant increasing trend and 30 observation wells and piezometers reflected a statistically significant decreasing trend in monsoon.Interestingly,most of the observation wells and piezometers with increasing trends of DGWL were located in Dausa and Jaipur districts.Furthermore,the GAM analysis revealed that climatic variables,such as precipitation,significantly affected DGWL in Barmer District,and DGWL in all other districts was influenced by anthropogenic variables,including GDP,NIA,and population.As a result,stringent regulations should be implemented to curb excessive groundwater extraction,manage agricultural water demand,initiate proactive aquifer recharge programs,and strengthen sustainable management in these water-scarce regions.

Innovative Technologies for Large-Scale Water Production in Arid Regions: Strategies for Sustainable Development

Water scarcity in arid regions poses significant challenges to sustainable development and human well-being. This article explores both existing and innovative technologies and methods to produce large amounts of water to address these challenges effectively. Key approaches include atmospheric water generation, advanced desalination techniques, innovative water collection methods such as fog nets and dew harvesting, geothermal water extraction, and water recycling and reuse. Each method is evaluated for its feasibility with existing technology, potential time of implementation, required investments, and specific challenges. By leveraging these technologies and combining them into a multifaceted water management strategy, it is possible to enhance water security, support agricultural and industrial activities, and improve living conditions in arid regions. Collaborative efforts between governments, private sector entities, and research institutions are crucial to advancing these technologies and ensuring their sustainable implementation. The article provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of these technologies, their potential for large-scale application, and recommendations for future research and development.

Selecting proper sites for underground dam construction using Multi-Attribute Utility Theory in arid and semi-arid regions

Although the construction of underground dams is one of the best methods to conserve water resources in arid and semi-arid regions,applying efficient methods for the selection of suitable sites for subsurface dam construction remains a challenge.Due to the costly and time-consuming methods of site selection for underground dam construction,this study aimed to present a new method using geographic information systems techniques and decision-making processes.The exclusionary criteria including fault,slope,hypsometry,land use,soil,stream,geology,and chemical properties of groundwater were selected for site selection of dam construction and inappropriate regions were omitted by integration and scoring layers in ArcGIS based on the Boolean logic.Finally,appropriate sites were prioritized using the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory.According to the results of the utility coefficient,seven sites were selected as the region for underground dam construction based on all criteria and experts’opinions.The site of Nazarabad dam was the best location for underground dam construction with a utility coefficient of 0.7137 followed by sites of Akhavan with a utility coefficient of 0.4633 and Mirshamsi with a utility coefficient of 0.4083.This study proposed a new approach for the construction of the subsurface dam at the proper site and help managers and decision-makers achieve sustainable water resources with limited facilities and capital and avoid wasting national capital.

Can climate change influence agricultural GTFP in arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China?

There are eight provinces and autonomous regions(Gansu Province,Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,Tibet Autonomous Region,Qinghai Province,Shanxi Province,and Shaanxi Province)in Northwest China,most areas of which are located in arid and semi-arid regions(northwest of the 400 mm precipitation line),accounting for 58.74%of the country's land area and sustaining approximately 7.84×10^6 people.Because of drought conditions and fragile ecology,these regions cannot develop agriculture at the expense of the environment.Given the challenges of global warming,the green total factor productivity(GTFP),taking CO2 emissions as an undesirable output,is an effective index for measuring the sustainability of agricultural development.Agricultural GTFP can be influenced by both internal production factors(labor force,machinery,land,agricultural plastic film,diesel,pesticide,and fertilizer)and external climate factors(temperature,precipitation,and sunshine duration).In this study,we used the Super-slacks-based measure(Super-SBM)model to measure agricultural GTFP during the period 2000-2016 at the regional level.Our results show that the average agricultural GTFP of most provinces and autonomous regions in arid and semi-arid regions underwent a fluctuating increase during the study period(2000-2016),and the fluctuation was caused by the production factors(input and output factors).To improve agricultural GTFP,Shaanxi,Shanxi,and Gansu should reduce agricultural labor force input;Shaanxi,Inner Mongolia,Gansu,and Shanxi should decrease machinery input;Shaanxi,Inner Mongolia,Xinjiang,and Shanxi should reduce fertilizer input;Shaanxi,Xinjiang,Gansu,and Ningxia should reduce diesel input;Xinjiang and Gansu should decrease plastic film input;and Gansu,Shanxi,and Inner Mongolia should cut pesticide input.Desirable output agricultural earnings should be increased in Qinghai and Tibet,and undesirable output(CO2 emissions)should be reduced in Inner Mongolia,Xinjiang,Gansu,and Shaanxi.Agricultural GTFP is influenced not only by internal production factors but also by external climate factors.To determine the influence of climate factors on GTFP in these provinces and autonomous regions,we used a Geographical Detector(Geodetector)model to analyze the influence of climate factors(temperature,precipitation,and sunshine duration)and identify the relationships between different climate factors and GTFP.We found that temperature played a significant role in the spatial heterogeneity of GTFP among provinces and autonomous regions in arid and semi-arid regions.For Xinjiang,Inner Mongolia,and Tibet,a suitable average annual temperature would be in the range of 7℃-9℃;for Gansu,Shanxi,and Ningxia,it would be 11℃-13℃;and for Shaanxi,it would be 15℃-17℃.Stable climatic conditions and more efficient production are prerequisites for the development of sustainable agriculture.Hence,in the agricultural production process,reducing the redundancy of input factors is the best way to reduce CO2 emissions and to maintain temperatures,thereby improving the agricultural GTFP.The significance of this study is that it explores the impact of both internal production factors and external climatic factors on the development of sustainable agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions,identifying an effective way forward for the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China.

Potential of rooftop rainwater harvesting to meet outdoor water demand in arid regions

The feasibility of rooftop rainwater harvesting （RRWH） as an alternative source of water to meet the outdoor water demand in nine states of the U.S. was evaluated using a system dynamics model developed in Systems Thinking, Experimental Learning Laboratory with Animation. The state of Arizona was selected to evaluate the effects of the selected model parameters on the efficacy of RRWH since among the nine states the arid region of Arizona showed the least potential of meeting the outdoor water demand with rain harvested water. The analyses were conducted on a monthly basis across a 10-year projected period from 2015 to 2024. The results showed that RRWH as a potential source of water was highly sensitive to certain model parameters such as the outdoor water demand, the use of desert landscaping, and the percentage of existing houses with RRWH. A significant difference （as high as 37.5%） in rainwater potential was observed between the projected wet and dry climate conditions in Arizona. The analysis of the dynamics of the storage tanks suggested that a 1.0-2.0 m3 rainwater barrel, on an average, can store approximately 80% of the monthly rainwater generated from the rooftops in Arizona, even across the high seasonal variation. This interactive model can be used as a quick estimator of the amount of water that could be generated, stored, and utilized through RRWH systems in the U.S. under different climate conditions. The findings of such comprehensive analyses may help regional policymakers, especially in arid regions, to develop a sustainable water management infrastructure.

Effects of cotton field management practices on soil CO2 emission and C balance in an arid region of Northwest China

Changes in both soil organic C storage and soil respiration in farmland ecosystems may affect atmospheric CO2 concentration and global C cycle. The objective of this field experiment was to study the effects of three crop field management practices on soil CO2 emission and C balance in a cotton field in an arid region of Northwest China. The three management practices were irrigation methods（drip and flood）, stubble managements（stubble-incorporated and stubble-removed） and fertilizer amendments（no fertilizer（CK）, chicken manure（OM）, inorganic N, P and K fertilizer（NPK）, and inorganic fertilizer plus chicken manure（NPK＋OM））. The results showed that within the C pool range, soil CO2 emission during the whole growing season was higher in the drip irrigation treatment than in the corresponding flood irrigation treatment, while soil organic C concentration was larger in the flood irrigation treatment than in the corresponding drip irrigation treatment. Furthermore, soil CO2 emission and organic C concentration were all higher in the stubble-incorporated treatment than in the corresponding stubble-removed treatment, and larger in the NPK＋OM treatment than in the other three fertilizer amendments within the C pool range. The combination of flood irrigation, stubble incorporation and application of either NPK＋OM or OM increased soil organic C concentration in the 0-60 cm soil depth. Calculation of net ecosystem productivity（NEP） under different management practices indicated that the combination of drip irrigation, stubble incorporation and NPK＋OM increased the size of the C pool most, followed by the combination of drip irrigation, stubble incorporation and NPK. In conclusion, management practices have significant impacts on soil CO2 emission, organic C concentration and C balance in cotton fields. Consequently, appropriate management practices, such as the combination of drip irrigation, stubble incorporation, and either NPK＋OM or NPK could increase soil C storage in cotton fields of Northwest China.

Study on Soil Salinization Information in Arid Region Using Remote Sensing Technique

Extracting information about saline soils from remote sensing data is useful, particularly given the environmental significance and changing nature of these areas in arid environments. One interesting case study to consider is the delta oasis of the Weigan and Kuqa rivers, China, which was studied using a Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus （ETM＋） image collected in August 2001. In recent years, decision tree classifiers have been successfully used for land cover classification from remote sensing data. Principal component analysis （PCA） is a popular data reduction technique used to help build a decision tree; it reduces complexity and can help the classification precision of a decision tree to be improved. A decision tree approach was used to determine the key variables to be used for classification and ultimately extract salinized soil from other cover and soil types within the study area. According to the research, the third principal component （PC3） is an effective variable in the decision tree classification for salinized soil information extraction. The research demonstrated that the PC3 was the best band to identify areas of severely salinized soil; the blue spectral band from the ETM＋ sensor （TM1） was the best band to identify salinized soil with the salt-tolerant vegetation of tamarisk （Tamarix chinensis Lour）; and areas comprising mixed water bodies and vegetation can be identified using the spectral indices MNDWI （modified normalized difference water index） and NDVI （normalized difference vegetation index）. Based upon this analysis, a decision tree classifier was applied to classify landcover types with different levels of soil saline. The results were checked using a statistical accuracy assessment. The overall accuracy of the classification was 94.80%, which suggested that the decision tree model is a simple and effective method with relatively high precision.

Improvement of Surface Albedo Simulations over Arid Regions

To improve the simulation of the surface radiation budget and related thermal processes in arid regions, three sophisticated surface albedo schemes designed for such regions were incorporated into the Biosphere- Atmosphere Transfer Scheme （BATS）. Two of these schemes are functions of the solar zenith angle （SZA）, where the first one has one adjustable parameter defined as SZA1 scheme, and the second one has two empirical parameters defined as SZA2 scheme. The third albedo scheme is a function of solar angle and soil water that were developed based on arid-region observations from the Dunhuang field experiment （DHEX） （defined as DH scheme）. We evaluated the performance of the original and newly-incorporated albedo schemes within BATS using the in-situ data from the Oasis System Energy and Water Cycle Field Experiment that was carried out in JinTa, Gansu arid area （JTEX）. The results indicate that a control run by the original version of the BATS generates a constant albedo, while the SZA1 and SZA2 schemes basically can reproduce the observed diurnal cycle of surface albedo, although these two schemes still underestimate the albedo when SZA is high in the early morning and late afternoon, and overestimate it when SZA is low during noontime. The SZA2 scheme has a better overall performance than the SZA1 scheme. In addition, BATS with the DH scheme slightly improves the albedo simulation in magnitude as compared to that from the control run, but a diurnal cycle of albedo is not produced by this scheme. The SZA1 and SZA2 schemes significantly increase the surface absorbed solar radiation by nearly 70 W m^-2, which further raises the ground temperature by 6 K and the sensible heat flux by 35 W m^-2. The increased solar radiation, heat flux, and temperature are more consistent with the observations that those from the control run. However, a significant improvement in these three variables is not found in BATS with the DH scheme due to the neglect of the diurnal cycle of albedo. Further analysis indicates that during cloudy days the solar radiation simulations of BATS with these three schemes are not in a good agreement with the observations, which implies that a more realistic partitioning of diffuse and direct radiation is needed in future land surface process simulations.

Effects of irrigation on precipitation in the arid regions of Xinjiang,China

Soil moisture is an important parameter for the interaction between soil and atmosphere. It is the sec- ond important factor that influences climate change, next to sea surface temperature （SST）. Most previous studies focused on the monsoon regions in East China, and only a few laid emphases on arid environments. In Xinjiang, which is located in Northwest China, the climate is typically arid and semi-arid. During the past 20 years, the pre- cipitation in Xinjiang has shown a significant increasing trend, and it is closely related to oasis irrigation. This paper aims at discussing whether abnormal soil moisture in spring can be the signal to forecast summer precipitation. The effects of abnormal soil moisture due to farm irrigation in spring in arid environments on regional climate are inves- tigated by using a regional climate model （RegCM3）. The results indicate that positive soil moisture anomaly in irrigated cropland surface in May led to an increase in precipitation in spring as well as across the whole summer. The impact could last for about four months. The effects of soil moisture on the surface air temperature showed a time-lagging trend. The summer air temperature declined by a maximum amplitude of 0.8℃. The increased soil moisture could enhance evaporation and ascending motion in the low troposphere, which brought in more precipi- tation. The soil moisture affected regional weather and climate mainly by altering the surface sensible and latent heat fluxes.

Effects of uniconazole with or without micronutrient on the lignin biosynthesis,lodging resistance,and winter wheat production in semiarid regions

Lodging stress results in grain yield and quality reduction in wheat. Uniconazole, a potential plant growth regulator significantly enhances lignin biosynthesis and thus provides mechanical strength to plants in order to cope with lodging stress. A field study was conducted during the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 growing seasons, to investigate the effects of uniconazole sole application or with micronutrient on the lignin biosynthesis, lodging resistance, and production of winter wheat. In the first experiment, uniconazole at concentrations of 0(CK), 15(US1), 30(US2), and 45(US3) mg L^-1 was applied as sole seed soaking, while in the second experiment with manganese(Mn) at concentration of 0.06 g L^-1 Mn, 0.06 g L^-1 Mn+ 15 mg L^-1 uniconazole(UMS1), 0.06 g L^-1 Mn+30 mg L^-1 uniconazole(UMS2), and 0.06 g L^-1 Mn+45 mg L^-1 uniconazole(UMS3), respectively. Uniconazole sole application or with micronutrient significantly increased the lignin content by improving the lignin-related enzyme activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase, tyrosine ammonialyase, and peroxidase, ameliorating basal internode characteristics, and breaking strength. The spike length, spike diameter, spikes/plant, weight/spike, yield/spike, and grain yield increased and then decreased with uniconazole application at a higher concentration, where their maximum values were recorded with UMS2 and US2 treatments. The lignin accumulation was positively correlated with lignin-related enzyme activities and breaking strength while, negatively correlated with lodging rate. Uniconazole significantly improved the lignin biosynthesis, lodging resistance, and grain yield of winter wheat and the treatments which showed the greatest effects were uniconazole seed soaking with micronutrient at a concentration of 30 mg L^-1 and 0.06 g L^-1 , and uniconazole sole seed soaking at a concentration of 30 mg L^-1 .

Assessment of impact of water diversion projects on ecological water uses in arid region

In arid regions, large-scale water diversion from rivers leads to significant changes in river flow regimes, which may have large impacts on ecological water uses of river-dependent ecosystems, such as river, lake, wetland, and riparian ecosystems. To assess the integrated impact of water diversion on ecological water uses, we proposed a hierarchy evaluation model composed of four layers representing the evaluation goal, sub-areas of the influenced region, evaluation criteria, and water diversion schemes, respectively. The evaluation criteria for different types of ecological water uses were proposed, and the analytical hierarchy process was used for the integrated assessment. For a river ecosystem, the percentage of mean annual flow was used to define the grade of environmental flow. For a lake ecosystem, water recharge to the lake to compensate the lake water losses was used to assess the ecological water use of a lake. The flooding level of the wetland and the groundwater level in the riparian plain were used to assess the wetland and riparian ecological water uses, respectively. The proposed model was applied to a basin in northern Xinjiang in northwest China, where both water diversion and inter-basin water transfer projects were planned to be carried out. Based on assessment results for the whole study area and two sub-areas, an appropriate scheme was recommended from four planning schemes. With the recommended scheme, ecological water uses of the influenced ecosystems can be maintained at an acceptable level. Meanwhile, economical water requirements can be met to a great extent.

Driving Force and Ecosystem Service Values Estimation in the Extreme Arid Region from 1975 to 2015:A Case Study of Alxa League,China

The research on ecosystem service values(ESVs)estimation in arid region is weak.We took the Alxa League of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,an extreme arid region,as an example and constructed an equivalent coefficient method to assess its ESVs from 1975 to 2015,by determining the standard unit of ESVs and the basic equivalent of the value of different ecosystem services per unit area based on the regional characteristics,literature research,expert knowledge and land use data.The results show that the ESVs first decreased from 83170.4 million yuan(RMB)in 1975 to 82337.8 million yuan(RMB)in 2000 and then increased to84033.6 million yuan(RMB)in 2015,and the ESV of sparse grassland and desert account for about 33%and 29%of the total ESVs,respectively.Among the four service types,the regulating services,support services,supply services and cultural services account for66.5%,22.8%,6.0%and 4.7%,respectively.The changes of ESVs in Alxa League are determined by the socio-economic development and ecological changes.This study provides a new method to estimate the ESVs in arid region by integrating existing methods and regional characteristics,such as the cost of water for arid ecosystems.

Numerical Study of Impacts of Soil Moisture on the Diurnal and Seasonal Cycles of Sensible/Latent Heat Fluxes over Semi-arid Region

The semi-arid regions, as climatic and ecosystem transitional zones, are the most vulnerable to global environmental change. Earlier researches indicate that the semi-arid regions are characterized by strong landatmosphere coupling in which soil moisture is the crucial variable in land surface processes. In this paper, we investigate the sensitivity of the sensible/latent heat fluxes to soil moisture during the growing season based on the enhanced observations at Tongyu in the Jilin province of China, a reference site of international Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project （CEOP） in the semi-arid regions, by using a sophisticated land surface model （NCAR_CLM3.0）. Comparisons between the observed and simulated sensible/latent heat fluxes indicate that the soil moisture has obvious effects on the sensible/latent heat fluxes in terms of diurnal cycle and seasonal evolution. Better representation of the soil moisture could improve the model performance to a large degree. Therefore, for the purpose of simulating the land-atmosphere interaction and predicting the climate and water resource changes in semi-arid regions, it is necessary to enhance the description of the soil moisture distribution both in the way of observation and its treatment in land surface models.

Study on the oasis corridor landscape in the arid regions based on RS and GIS methods—application of Jinta Oasis, China

The study on the oasis corridor landscape is a new hotspot in the ecological environment research in the arid regions. In oasis, main corridor landscape types include river, ditch, shelterbelt and road. This paper introduces the basic ecological effects of the corridor landscape on the transporting mass and energy and obstructing desert landscape expansion and incursion. Using Geographic Information System(GIS), we have researched the corridor distribution and its spatial relationship with other landscape types in the Jinta Oasis. Based on the dynamically monitoring on the landscape pattern change of the Jinta Oasis during the latter 10 years by using Remote Sensing(RS) and GIS,the driving functions of the corridors on this change have been analyzed in detail. The analysis results showed that all kinds of corridors' characteristics can be quantified by the indexes such as length and width, ratio of perimeter and area, density and non-heterogeneity. The total corridor length of Jinta Oasis is 1838.5 km and its density is 2.1 km/km 2. The corridor density of the irrigation land, forest and resident area is maximal, which shows that affection degree of the oasis corridors on them is the most. The improvement of the corridors quality is one of the important driving factors on the irrigation land and so on. The organic combination of the RS and GIS technologies and landscape research methods would be an effective means for the corridor landscape research on arid region oasis.

Runoff of arid and semi-arid regions simulated and projected by CLM-DTVGM and its multi-scale fluctuations as revealed by EEMD analysis

Runoff is a major component of the water cycle, and its multi-scale fluctuations are important to water resources management across arid and semi-arid regions. This paper coupled the Distributed Time Variant Gain Model （DTVGM） into the Community Land Model （CLM 3.5）, replacing the TOPMODEL-based method to simulate runoff in the arid and semi-arid regions of China. The coupled model was calibrated at five gauging stations for the period 1980-2005 and validated for the period 2006-2010. Then, future runoff （2010-2100） was simulated for different Representative Concentration Pathways （RCP） emission scenarios. After that, the spatial distributions of the future runoff for these scenarios were discussed, and the multi-scale fluctuation characteristics of the future annual runoff for the RCP scenarios were explored using the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition （EEMD） analysis method. Finally, the decadal variabilities of the future annual runoff for the entire study area and the five catchments in it were investigated. The results showed that the future annual runoff had slowly decreasing trends for scenarios RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 during the period 2010-2100, whereas it had a non-monotonic trend for the RCP 4.5 scenario, with a slow increase after the 2050s. Additionally, the future annual runoff clearly varied over a decadal time scale, indicating that it had clear divisions between dry and wet periods. The longest dry period was approximately 15 years （2040-2055） for the RCP 2.6 scenario and 25 years （2045-2070） for the RCP 4.5 scenario. However, the RCP 8.5 scenario was predicted to have a long dry period starting from 2045. Under these scenarios, the water resources situation of the study area will be extremely severe. Therefore, adaptive water management measures addressing climate change should be adopted to proactively confront the risks of water resources.

Sap-flow measurement and scale transferring from sample trees to entire forest stand of Populus euphratica in desert riparian forest in extreme arid region

Understanding how the transpiration of this vegetation type responds to environmental stress is important for determining the wa-ter-balance dynamics of the riparian ecosystem threatened by groundwater depletion. Transpiration and sap flow were measured using the heat-pulse technique. The results were then projected up to the stand level to investigate the stand’s water-use in relation to climate forcing in the desert riparian forest in an extreme arid region. This study took place from April through October 2003 and from May through October 2004. The experimental site was selected in the Populus euphratica Forest Reserve (101o10' E, 41o59' N) in Ejina county, in the lower Heihe River basin, China. The sapwood area was used as a scalar to extrapolate the stand-water consumption from the whole trees’ water consumption measured by the heat-pulse velocity recorder (HPVR). Scale transferring from a series of individual trees to a stand was done according to the existing natural variations between trees under given environmental conditions. The application of the biometric parameters available from individual tree and stand levels was proved suitable for this purpose. A significant correlation between the sapwood area and tree diameter at breast height (DBH) was found. The prediction model is well fitted by the power model. On the basis of the prediction model, the sapwood area can be cal-culated by DBH. The sap-flow density can then be used to extrapolate the stand-water use by means of a series of mathematical models.

Identification and analysis of root causes of desertification in semi-arid region of China──a case study from Ejin Horo Banner, Inner Mongolia

A case study on the driving forces of desertification in the semi-arid region was carried out in the Ejin Horo Banner of Inner Mongolia. The occurrence and development of desertification were demonstrated and its driving factors were identified and analyzed. The results obtained indicated that over-reclamation of land overgrazing and denudation of natural vegetation cover were immediate and dominant factors causing land vulnerability to desertification. For a better understanding of the deep-rooted causes of the inappropriate land use and agricultural practices, the problems arising from various socioeconomic facets were comprehensively discussed.

Spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of relative humidity in arid region of Northwest China during 1966–2017

Playing an important role in global warming and plant growth,relative humidity(RH)has profound impacts on production and living,and can be used as an integrated indicator for evaluating the wet-dry conditions in the arid and semi-arid area.However,information on the spatial-temporal variation and the influencing factors of RH in these regions is still limited.This study attempted to use daily meteorological data during 1966–2017 to reveal the spatial-temporal characteristics of RH in the arid region of Northwest China through rotated empirical orthogonal function and statistical analysis method,and the path analysis was used to clarify the impact of temperature(T),precipitation(P),actual evapotranspiration(ETa),wind speed(W)and sunshine duration(S)on RH.The results demonstrated that climatic conditions in North Xinjiang(NXJ)was more humid than those in Hexi Corridor(HXC)and South Xinjiang(SXJ).RH had a less significant downtrend in NXJ than that in HXC,but an increasingly rising trend was observed in SXJ during the last five decades,implying that HXC and NXJ were under the process of droughts,while SXJ was getting wetter.There was a turning point for the trend of RH in Xinjiang,which occurred in 2000.Path analysis indicated that RH was negatively correlated to T,ETa,W and S,but it increased with increase of P.S,T and W had the greatest direct effects on RH in HXC,NXJ and SXJ,respectively.ETa was the factor which had the greatest indirect effect on RH in HXC and NXJ,while T was the dominant factor in SXJ.