By using interview data from three large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in agriculture related industries, this paper reveals that SOEs in inland area are much slow in response to globalization. Although they pursued ...By using interview data from three large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in agriculture related industries, this paper reveals that SOEs in inland area are much slow in response to globalization. Although they pursued some strategies to adjust themselves, they are far behind the position to utilize the opportunities generated by economic globalization. Most of them are still out of the networks of transnational corporations. The strategies they adopted are quite different from SOEs in the coastal area. They overlook the importance of information infrastructure, well-educated personnel, and collaboration with the competitive leaders in their industries. The lagging situation is related to isolated location, traditional culture, and slow progress in enterprise reform. International comparison shows that the case companies did follow the general patterns that globalization promotes extension of company′s networks of linkages but in a rather slow phase. The decision makers should encourage intra-regional linkages between SOEs, between SOEs and private, foreign owned companies, as well as inter-regional linkages among them. The latter appears particularly important given the enlarging gaps between coastal and inland areas.展开更多
Based on simulations of 18 CMIP5 models under three RCP scenarios, this article investigates changes in mean temperature and precipitation and their extremes over Asia in the context of global warming targets of 1.5-4...Based on simulations of 18 CMIP5 models under three RCP scenarios, this article investigates changes in mean temperature and precipitation and their extremes over Asia in the context of global warming targets of 1.5-4 ℃, and further compares the differences between 1.5 ℃ and 2 ℃ targets. Results show that relative to the pre-industrial era, the mean temperature over Asia increases by 2.3 ℃, 3.0 ℃, 4.6 ℃, and 6.0 ℃ at warming targets of 1.5 ℃, 2 ℃, 3 ℃, and 4 ℃, respectively, with stronger warming in high latitudes than in low latitudes. The corresponding enhancement in mean precipitation over the entire Asian region is 4.4%, 5.8%, 10.2%, and 13.0%, with significant regional differences. In addition, an increase in warm extremes, a decrease in cold extremes, and a strengthening in the variability of amounts of extreme precipitation are projected. Under the 1.5 ℃ target, compared with the climate under the 2 ℃ target, the mean temperature will be lower by 0.5-1 ℃ over Asia; the mean precipitation will be less by 5%-20% over most of Asia, but will be greater by about 10%-15% over West Asia and western South Asia; extreme high temperatures will be uniformly cooler throughout the Asian region, and the warming in extreme low temperatures will decrease significantly in high latitudes of Asia; extreme precipitation will be weaker over most of Asia but will be stronger over West Asia and western South Asia. Under the 1.5 ℃ and 2 ℃ warming targets, the probability of very hot weather (anomalies greater than 1σ, σ is standard deviation), extremely hot weather (anomalies greater than 3or), and extremely heavy precipitation (anomalies greater than 3σ) occurring will increase by at least once, 10%, and 10%, respectively, compared to the reference period (1861-1900).展开更多
The northeastern China is an important commodity grain region in China,as well as a notable corn belt and major soybean producing area.It thus plays a significant role in the national food security system.However,larg...The northeastern China is an important commodity grain region in China,as well as a notable corn belt and major soybean producing area.It thus plays a significant role in the national food security system.However,large-scale land reclamation and non-optimum farming practices give rise to soil degradation in the region.This study analyzed the food security issues coupled with global climate change in the northeastern China during 1980–2000,which is the period of modern agriculture.The results of statistical data show that the arable land area shrank markedly in 1992,and then increased slowly,while food production generally continually increased.The stable grain yield was due to the increase of applied fertilizer and irrigated areas.Soil degradation in the northeastern China includes severe soil erosion,reduced soil nutrients,a thinner black soil layer,and deterioration of soil physical properties.The sustainable development of the northeastern China is influenced by natural-artificial binary disturbance factors which consist of meteorological conditions,climate changes,and terrain factors as well as soil physical and chemical properties.Interactions between the increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation in the region led to reduced accumulation of soil organic matter,which results in poor soil fertility.Human-induced factors,such as large-scale land reclamation and non-optimum farming practices,unsuitable cultivation systems,dredging,road building,illegal land occupation,and extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides,have led to increasingly severe soil erosion and destruction.Solutions to several problems of soil degradation in this region requiring urgent settlement are proposed.A need for clear and systematic recognition and recording of land use changes,land degradation,food production and climate change conditions is suggested,which would provide a reference for food security studies in the northeastern China.展开更多
Sand/dust storms are some of the main hazards in arid and semi-arid zones. These storms also influence global environmental changes. By field observations, empirical statistics, and numerical simulations, pioneer rese...Sand/dust storms are some of the main hazards in arid and semi-arid zones. These storms also influence global environmental changes. By field observations, empirical statistics, and numerical simulations, pioneer researchers on these natural events have concluded the existence of a positive relationship between thermodynamic effects and sand/dust storms. Thermodynamic effects induce an unsteady stratified atmosphere to influence the process of these storms. However, studies on the relationship of thermodynamic effects with particles (i.e., sand and dust) are limited. In this article, wind tunnel with heating was used to simulate the quantitative relationship between thermodynamic effects and particle movement on different surfaces. Compared with the cold state, the threshold wind velocity of particles is found to be significantly decrease under the hot state. The largest decrease percentage exceedes 9% on fine and coarse sand surfaces. The wind velocity also has a three-power function in the sand transport rate under the hot state with increased sand transport. Thermodynamic effects are stronger on loose surfaces and fine particles, but weaker on compacted surfaces and coarse particles.展开更多
In the warming world, tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) variation has received considerable attention because of its enormous influence on global climate change, particularly the El Nino-Southern Oscill...In the warming world, tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) variation has received considerable attention because of its enormous influence on global climate change, particularly the El Nino-Southern Oscillation process. Here, we provide new high-resolution proxy records of the magnesium/ calcium ratio and the oxygen isotope in foraminifera from a core on the Ontong-Java Plateau to reconstruct the SST and hydrological variation in the center of the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) over the last 360 000 years. In comparison with other Mg/Ca-derived SST and δ18O records, the results suggested that in a relatively stable condition, e.g., the last glacial maximum (LGM) and other glacial periods, the tropical Pacific would adopt a La Nifia-like state, and the Walker and Hadley cycles would be synchronously enhanced. Conversely, El Nino-like conditions could have occurred in the tropical Pacific during fast- changing periods, e.g., the termination and rapidly cooling stages of interglacial periods. In the light of the sensitivity of the Eastern Pacific Cold Tongue (EPCT) and the inertia of the WPWP, we hypothesize an inter-restricted relationship between the WPWP and EPCT, which could control the zonal gradient variation of SST and affect climate change.展开更多
Sea surface temperature (SST) variation in the Subei coastal waters, East China, which is important for the ecological environment of the Yellow Sea where Enteromorphaprolifera blooms frequently, is affected by the ...Sea surface temperature (SST) variation in the Subei coastal waters, East China, which is important for the ecological environment of the Yellow Sea where Enteromorphaprolifera blooms frequently, is affected by the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM), El Nifio-Southem Oscillation (ENSO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). In this study, correlations between climatic events and SST anomalies (SSTA) around the Subei (North Jiangsu Province, East China) Coast from 1981-2012 are analyzed, using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and correlation analyses. First, a key region was determined by EOF analysis to represent the Subei coastal waters. Then, coherency analyses were performed on this key region. According to the correlation analysis, the EAWM index has a positive correlation with the spring and summer SSTA of the key region. Furthermore, the Nifio3.4 index is negatively correlated with the spring and summer SSTA of the key region 1 year ahead, and the PDO has significant negative coherency with spring SSTA and negative coherency with summer SSTA in the key region 1 year ahead. Overall, PDO exhibits the most significant impact on SSTA of the key region. In the key region, all these factors are correlated more significantly with SSTA in spring than in summer. This suggests that outbreaks ofEnteromorpha prolifera in the Yellow Sea are affected by global climatic changes, especially the PDO.展开更多
Because land cover plays an important role in global climate change studies, assessing the agreement among different land cover products is critical. Significant discrepancies have been reported among satellite-derive...Because land cover plays an important role in global climate change studies, assessing the agreement among different land cover products is critical. Significant discrepancies have been reported among satellite-derived land cover products, especially at the regional scale. Dif- ferent classification schemes are a key obstacle to the comparison of products and are considered the main fac- tor behind the disagreement among the different products. Using a feature-based overlap metric, we investigated the degree of spatial agreement and quantified the overall and class-specific agreement among the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer (MODIS), Global Land Cover 2000 (GLC2000), and the National Land Cover/Use Data- sets (NLCD) products, and the author assessed the prod- ucts by ground reference data at the regional scale over China. The areas with a low degree of agreement mostly occurred in heterogeneous terrain and transition zones, while the areas with a high degree of agreement occurred in major plains and areas with homogeneous vegetation. The overall agreement of the MODIS and GLC2000 products was 50.8% and 52.9%, and the overall accuracy was 50.3% and 41.9%, respectively. Class-specific agree- ment or accuracy varied significantly. The high-agreement classes are water, grassland, cropland, snow and ice, and bare areas, whereas classes with low agreement are shru- bland and wetland in both MODIS and GLC2000. These characteristics of spatial patterns and quantitative agree- ment could be partly explained by the complex landscapes, mixed vegetation, low separability of spectro-temporal- texture signals, and coarse pixels. The differences of class definition among different the classification schemes also affects the agreement. Each product had its advantages and limitations, but neither the overall accuracy nor the class-specific accuracy could meet the requirements of climate modeling.展开更多
Anti-globalization trends are in play in the US and Western Europe where electorates are recalcitrant to allow immigrants into their societies, national sovereignty is sought in certain geographic areas, and the natio...Anti-globalization trends are in play in the US and Western Europe where electorates are recalcitrant to allow immigrants into their societies, national sovereignty is sought in certain geographic areas, and the national mood seeks to suppress newly rising countries' trade and development. The continuation of economic downturn in Western countries is reinforced by their internal wealth gap and external competition. As capitalism's demand for profit is now being critiqued along with the emergent profit prospects to be delivered by pending technological progress, the temper of the times could temporarily slow down but not reverse globalization. Timely discussions about reform of international economic order and about an effective national development model should seek sustainable solutions for healthy, stable globalization and development of the world economy.展开更多
With the spread of globalization and information technology, the status of English as a lingua franca worldwide is undisputable. Consequently, the impact of globalization on ELT (English language teaching) is phenom...With the spread of globalization and information technology, the status of English as a lingua franca worldwide is undisputable. Consequently, the impact of globalization on ELT (English language teaching) is phenomenal. In responding to the impact of global competitors and internationalization, English teaching is often regarded as a principal issue in education. English education is treated as a tool to keep up with the rapid globalization of the world economy. Discussing ELT in Taiwan as an example, this paper aims to raise caution among the periphery educators that under the impact of globalization, the imposition of western culture and language via ELT could be potentially hegemonic and harmful to the local culture and language. This paper will be organized into three parts. Firstly, the impact of globalization on the dominance of English will be discussed. Secondly, the potential threats of linguistic hegemony via ELT will be analyzed. Thirdly, proactive solutions to the hegemonic threats of ELT are proposed as the key to ride out the wave of globalization.展开更多
Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the complex linkages between climate change and water. The likely warmer climate induced by the climate change is set to alter hy...Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the complex linkages between climate change and water. The likely warmer climate induced by the climate change is set to alter hydrological cycle and the shifting pattern of the rainfall would affect the spatial and temporal distribution of runoff, soil moisture, and surface and groundwater reserves. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the impacts of climate change on water and devise adaptation measures including management structures and processes by which one can deal with this challenge. The paper highlights with the global overview of climate change impacts on water in the arid region, supported and substantiated through scientific evidence drawn from IPCC reports and other relevant documents. This paper provides an overview of water resource management challenges including transboundary geopolitical concerns documented across the world and emphasizes the importance of an integrated framework for adaptive policy making. Further, it examines the viable water resource management options for various sectors and regions and showcases some of the international best practices in adaptation and mitigation. The paper also explains the complementary role of traditional knowledge in coping with climate change risks and uncertainties and the need for a balanced view in designing adaptation and mitigation strategies.展开更多
With today's economic globalization,inter-provincial trade plays an important role in a country's economy.This paper is the first to adopt the input-output tables of 30 Chinese provinces and to summarize the e...With today's economic globalization,inter-provincial trade plays an important role in a country's economy.This paper is the first to adopt the input-output tables of 30 Chinese provinces and to summarize the evolution of China's inter-provincial trade from1987 to 2007.This paper reaches the following conclusions.First,China's inter-provincial trade has sustained a period of rapid growth.In 2007,the total volume of inter-provincial trade was twice the amount of international trade,with the eastern region accounting for the majority of the inter-provincial trade volume.GDP may have a greater effect on interprovincial trade than geographic distance does.Second,inter-provincial trade maintains a high level of concentration and overlaps with the high concentration of GDP.Third,the inter-provincial trade dependence of Chinese provinces tends to increase,an indication of the growing domestic market integration.Moreover,the eastern region's dependence on inter-provincial trade is higher than the central and western regions'.Fourth,the share of inter-provincial trade in the overall external trade of Chinese provinces has a declining tendency,which indicates a slower process of China's domestic market integration compared with international market integration.However,in terms of proportion,the external trade of most Chinese provinces is still dominated by inter-provincial trade.Fifth,most provinces with longstanding inter-provincial trade deficits are in the central and western regions.展开更多
When a vehicle travels in urban areas, onboard global positioning system (GPS) signals may be obstructed by high-rise buildings and thereby cannot provide accurate positions. It is proposed to perform localization b...When a vehicle travels in urban areas, onboard global positioning system (GPS) signals may be obstructed by high-rise buildings and thereby cannot provide accurate positions. It is proposed to perform localization by registering ground images to a 2D building boundary map which is generated from aerial images. Multilayer feature graphs (MFG) is employed to model building facades from the ground images. MFG was reported in the previous work to facilitate the robot scene understand- ing in urhan areas. By constructing MFG, the 2D/3D positions of features can be obtained, inclu- cling line segments, ideal lines, and all primary vertical planes. Finally, a voting-based feature weighted localization method is developed based on MFGs and the 2D building boundary map. The proposed method has been implemented and validated in physical experiments. In the proposed ex- periments, the algorithm has achieved an overall localization accuracy of 2.2m, which is better than commercial GPS working in open environments.展开更多
The interannual variability of global temperature and precipitation during the last millennium is analyzed using the results of ten coupled climate models participating in the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Pr...The interannual variability of global temperature and precipitation during the last millennium is analyzed using the results of ten coupled climate models participating in the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 3. It is found that large temperature(precipitation) variability is most dominant at high latitudes(tropical monsoon regions), and the seasonal magnitudes are greater than the annual mean. Significant multi-decadal-scale changes exist throughout the whole period for the zonal mean of both temperature and precipitation variability, while their long-term trends are indistinctive. The volcanic forcings correlate well with the temperature variability at midlatitudes, indicating possible leading drivers for the interannual time scale climate change.展开更多
Both academia and actual economic sectors have certain misunderstandings regarding the development of China's open economy. Since its accession to the WTO, China has in fact had an open economy and not an "export-or...Both academia and actual economic sectors have certain misunderstandings regarding the development of China's open economy. Since its accession to the WTO, China has in fact had an open economy and not an "export-oriented" economy. China's trade imbalance in the global economy is merely a result of economic disparities between the world's more- and less- developed regions combined with the rational optimization of resources. The current situation, wherein China appears to be heavily export-oriented, stems naturally from the real economy moving towards a dynamic equilibrium against a backdrop of economic globalization and deepening international specialization. We have concluded that domestic consumption and external demand reinforce each other, and the development of an open economy in China is therefore not at odds with expanding domestic consumption.展开更多
The Lungmachi Formation is widely distributed in Guizhou, Chongqing and the adjacent area. It is important for the study of Silurian biostratigraphy and shale-gas investigation. Based on those biostratigraphically wel...The Lungmachi Formation is widely distributed in Guizhou, Chongqing and the adjacent area. It is important for the study of Silurian biostratigraphy and shale-gas investigation. Based on those biostratigraphically well-studied sections from Guiyang to Huayingshan, we reveal the stage-progressive distribution pattern of the Lungmachi black shales. The distribution of the Lungmachi black shales in the studying area can be subdivided into four geographic belts from the south to the north,reflecting the joint effect of regional and global environmental changes. The graptolite depth zonation model was adopted herein to infer the water depth of major graptolite assemblages from the black shales. The changes in the water depth indicate two major stages. The first stage is named the transgressive distribution stage which ranged from the Persculptograptus persculptus Biozone(LM1, upper Hirnantian) to the Coronograptus cyphus Biozone(LM5, upper Rhuddanian), an interval mostly controlled by global sea-level rise. The second stage, ranging from the Demirastrites triangulatus Biozone(LM6, lower Aeronian) to the Spirograptus guerichi Biozone(LM9, lower Telychian), is named the regressive shrinking stage, during which the black shales were gradually replaced by mixed-facies or carbonate sediments from the south to the north, representing the effects of the persistent uplifting of the Central Guizhou Oldland.展开更多
The Pearl River Delta on China's coast is a region that is seriously threatened by sea level rise and storm surges induced by global climate change, which causes flooding of large areas of farmland and huge agricu...The Pearl River Delta on China's coast is a region that is seriously threatened by sea level rise and storm surges induced by global climate change, which causes flooding of large areas of farmland and huge agricultural losses. Based on relevant research and experience, a loss evaluation model of farmland yield caused by sea level rise and storm surges was established. In this model, the area of submerged farmland, area of crops, and per unit yield of every type of crop were considered, but the impact of wind, flooding time, changes in land use and plant structure were not considered for long-term prediction. Taking the Pearl River Delta region in Guangdong as the study area, we estimated and analyzed the spatial distribution and loss of farmlands for different scenarios in the years 2030, 2050, and 2100, using a digital elevation model, land-use data, local crop structure, rotation patterns, and yield loss ratios for different submerged heights obtained from field survey and questionnaires. The results show that the proportion of submerged farmlands and losses of agricultural production in the Pearl River Delta region will increase gradually from 2030 to 2100. Yangjiang, Foshan, and Dongguan show obvious increases in submerged farmlands, while Guangzhou and Zhuhai show slow increases. In agricultural losses, vegetables would sustain the largest loss of production, followed by rice and peanuts. The greatest loss of rice crops would occur in Jiangmen, and the loss of vegetable crops would be high in Shanwei and Jiangmen. Although losses of peanut crops are generally lower, Jiangmen, Guangzhou, and Shanwei would experience relatively high losses. Finally, some measures to defend against storm surges are suggested, such as building sea walls and gates in Jiangmen, Huizhou, and Shanwei, enforcing ecological protection to reduce destruction from storm surges, and strengthening disaster warning systems.展开更多
The influence of monsoon climatic characteristics makes the tropics of China different from those of other parts of the world. Therefore, the location of the northern boundary of China's tropical zone has been one...The influence of monsoon climatic characteristics makes the tropics of China different from those of other parts of the world. Therefore, the location of the northern boundary of China's tropical zone has been one of the most controversial issues in the study of comprehensive physical regionalisation in China. This paper introduces developments in the study of the northern boundary of China's tropical zone, in which different scholars delimit the boundary with great differences based on different regionalisation objectives, indexes, and methods. The main divergence of opinion is found in different understandings of zonal vegetation, agricultural vegetation type, cropping systems, tropical soil type and tropical characteristics. In this study, we applied the Geo Detector model, which measures the spatial stratified heterogeneity, to validate the northern boundaries of the tropical zone delimited by six principal scholars. The results show that the mean q-statistic value of the higher latitude boundary delimited by Ren Mei'e is the largest(q=0.37), suggesting that, of the rival views, it best reflects the regional differences between China's tropical and subtropical zones, but it is not necessarily suitable for guiding the development of tropical agriculture. The mean values of the q-statistics of Zheng Du's line and Yu Xianfang's line around the Leizhou Peninsula at a lower latitude were smaller, at 0.10 and 0.08 respectively, indicating that the regional differences were smaller than those of Ren Mei'e's boundary. Against the background of global climate change, the climate itself is changing in fluctuation. It is, thus, worth our further research whether the northern boundary of the tropical zone should not be a fixed line but rather should fluctuate within a certain scope to reflect these changes.展开更多
基金Under the auspices of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 49971024) and Overseas Returning Scholar Program of
文摘By using interview data from three large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in agriculture related industries, this paper reveals that SOEs in inland area are much slow in response to globalization. Although they pursued some strategies to adjust themselves, they are far behind the position to utilize the opportunities generated by economic globalization. Most of them are still out of the networks of transnational corporations. The strategies they adopted are quite different from SOEs in the coastal area. They overlook the importance of information infrastructure, well-educated personnel, and collaboration with the competitive leaders in their industries. The lagging situation is related to isolated location, traditional culture, and slow progress in enterprise reform. International comparison shows that the case companies did follow the general patterns that globalization promotes extension of company′s networks of linkages but in a rather slow phase. The decision makers should encourage intra-regional linkages between SOEs, between SOEs and private, foreign owned companies, as well as inter-regional linkages among them. The latter appears particularly important given the enlarging gaps between coastal and inland areas.
基金Acknowledgments This research was jointly supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFA0600701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41675069), and the Climate Change Specific Fund of China (CCSF201731).
文摘Based on simulations of 18 CMIP5 models under three RCP scenarios, this article investigates changes in mean temperature and precipitation and their extremes over Asia in the context of global warming targets of 1.5-4 ℃, and further compares the differences between 1.5 ℃ and 2 ℃ targets. Results show that relative to the pre-industrial era, the mean temperature over Asia increases by 2.3 ℃, 3.0 ℃, 4.6 ℃, and 6.0 ℃ at warming targets of 1.5 ℃, 2 ℃, 3 ℃, and 4 ℃, respectively, with stronger warming in high latitudes than in low latitudes. The corresponding enhancement in mean precipitation over the entire Asian region is 4.4%, 5.8%, 10.2%, and 13.0%, with significant regional differences. In addition, an increase in warm extremes, a decrease in cold extremes, and a strengthening in the variability of amounts of extreme precipitation are projected. Under the 1.5 ℃ target, compared with the climate under the 2 ℃ target, the mean temperature will be lower by 0.5-1 ℃ over Asia; the mean precipitation will be less by 5%-20% over most of Asia, but will be greater by about 10%-15% over West Asia and western South Asia; extreme high temperatures will be uniformly cooler throughout the Asian region, and the warming in extreme low temperatures will decrease significantly in high latitudes of Asia; extreme precipitation will be weaker over most of Asia but will be stronger over West Asia and western South Asia. Under the 1.5 ℃ and 2 ℃ warming targets, the probability of very hot weather (anomalies greater than 1σ, σ is standard deviation), extremely hot weather (anomalies greater than 3or), and extremely heavy precipitation (anomalies greater than 3σ) occurring will increase by at least once, 10%, and 10%, respectively, compared to the reference period (1861-1900).
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41171335)Hydroinformatics for Ecohydrology Program of United Nations Educational+2 种基金Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.20110490447)Beijing Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.2012-49)
文摘The northeastern China is an important commodity grain region in China,as well as a notable corn belt and major soybean producing area.It thus plays a significant role in the national food security system.However,large-scale land reclamation and non-optimum farming practices give rise to soil degradation in the region.This study analyzed the food security issues coupled with global climate change in the northeastern China during 1980–2000,which is the period of modern agriculture.The results of statistical data show that the arable land area shrank markedly in 1992,and then increased slowly,while food production generally continually increased.The stable grain yield was due to the increase of applied fertilizer and irrigated areas.Soil degradation in the northeastern China includes severe soil erosion,reduced soil nutrients,a thinner black soil layer,and deterioration of soil physical properties.The sustainable development of the northeastern China is influenced by natural-artificial binary disturbance factors which consist of meteorological conditions,climate changes,and terrain factors as well as soil physical and chemical properties.Interactions between the increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation in the region led to reduced accumulation of soil organic matter,which results in poor soil fertility.Human-induced factors,such as large-scale land reclamation and non-optimum farming practices,unsuitable cultivation systems,dredging,road building,illegal land occupation,and extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides,have led to increasingly severe soil erosion and destruction.Solutions to several problems of soil degradation in this region requiring urgent settlement are proposed.A need for clear and systematic recognition and recording of land use changes,land degradation,food production and climate change conditions is suggested,which would provide a reference for food security studies in the northeastern China.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40930741, 41071009, 41001005)Knowledge Innovation Programs of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZCX2-YW-329)
文摘Sand/dust storms are some of the main hazards in arid and semi-arid zones. These storms also influence global environmental changes. By field observations, empirical statistics, and numerical simulations, pioneer researchers on these natural events have concluded the existence of a positive relationship between thermodynamic effects and sand/dust storms. Thermodynamic effects induce an unsteady stratified atmosphere to influence the process of these storms. However, studies on the relationship of thermodynamic effects with particles (i.e., sand and dust) are limited. In this article, wind tunnel with heating was used to simulate the quantitative relationship between thermodynamic effects and particle movement on different surfaces. Compared with the cold state, the threshold wind velocity of particles is found to be significantly decrease under the hot state. The largest decrease percentage exceedes 9% on fine and coarse sand surfaces. The wind velocity also has a three-power function in the sand transport rate under the hot state with increased sand transport. Thermodynamic effects are stronger on loose surfaces and fine particles, but weaker on compacted surfaces and coarse particles.
基金Supported by the Knowledge Innovation Engineering Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.XDA10010305)the National Special Project for‘Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction’(No.GASI-04-01-02)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.41230959,41076030,41576051)
文摘In the warming world, tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) variation has received considerable attention because of its enormous influence on global climate change, particularly the El Nino-Southern Oscillation process. Here, we provide new high-resolution proxy records of the magnesium/ calcium ratio and the oxygen isotope in foraminifera from a core on the Ontong-Java Plateau to reconstruct the SST and hydrological variation in the center of the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) over the last 360 000 years. In comparison with other Mg/Ca-derived SST and δ18O records, the results suggested that in a relatively stable condition, e.g., the last glacial maximum (LGM) and other glacial periods, the tropical Pacific would adopt a La Nifia-like state, and the Walker and Hadley cycles would be synchronously enhanced. Conversely, El Nino-like conditions could have occurred in the tropical Pacific during fast- changing periods, e.g., the termination and rapidly cooling stages of interglacial periods. In the light of the sensitivity of the Eastern Pacific Cold Tongue (EPCT) and the inertia of the WPWP, we hypothesize an inter-restricted relationship between the WPWP and EPCT, which could control the zonal gradient variation of SST and affect climate change.
基金Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program)(No.2010CB950403)the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.XDA11020301)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41176018)the Special Fund for Marine Research in the Public Interest(No.201005006)
文摘Sea surface temperature (SST) variation in the Subei coastal waters, East China, which is important for the ecological environment of the Yellow Sea where Enteromorphaprolifera blooms frequently, is affected by the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM), El Nifio-Southem Oscillation (ENSO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). In this study, correlations between climatic events and SST anomalies (SSTA) around the Subei (North Jiangsu Province, East China) Coast from 1981-2012 are analyzed, using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and correlation analyses. First, a key region was determined by EOF analysis to represent the Subei coastal waters. Then, coherency analyses were performed on this key region. According to the correlation analysis, the EAWM index has a positive correlation with the spring and summer SSTA of the key region. Furthermore, the Nifio3.4 index is negatively correlated with the spring and summer SSTA of the key region 1 year ahead, and the PDO has significant negative coherency with spring SSTA and negative coherency with summer SSTA in the key region 1 year ahead. Overall, PDO exhibits the most significant impact on SSTA of the key region. In the key region, all these factors are correlated more significantly with SSTA in spring than in summer. This suggests that outbreaks ofEnteromorpha prolifera in the Yellow Sea are affected by global climatic changes, especially the PDO.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB723904)the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA05090201)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40810059003)
文摘Because land cover plays an important role in global climate change studies, assessing the agreement among different land cover products is critical. Significant discrepancies have been reported among satellite-derived land cover products, especially at the regional scale. Dif- ferent classification schemes are a key obstacle to the comparison of products and are considered the main fac- tor behind the disagreement among the different products. Using a feature-based overlap metric, we investigated the degree of spatial agreement and quantified the overall and class-specific agreement among the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer (MODIS), Global Land Cover 2000 (GLC2000), and the National Land Cover/Use Data- sets (NLCD) products, and the author assessed the prod- ucts by ground reference data at the regional scale over China. The areas with a low degree of agreement mostly occurred in heterogeneous terrain and transition zones, while the areas with a high degree of agreement occurred in major plains and areas with homogeneous vegetation. The overall agreement of the MODIS and GLC2000 products was 50.8% and 52.9%, and the overall accuracy was 50.3% and 41.9%, respectively. Class-specific agree- ment or accuracy varied significantly. The high-agreement classes are water, grassland, cropland, snow and ice, and bare areas, whereas classes with low agreement are shru- bland and wetland in both MODIS and GLC2000. These characteristics of spatial patterns and quantitative agree- ment could be partly explained by the complex landscapes, mixed vegetation, low separability of spectro-temporal- texture signals, and coarse pixels. The differences of class definition among different the classification schemes also affects the agreement. Each product had its advantages and limitations, but neither the overall accuracy nor the class-specific accuracy could meet the requirements of climate modeling.
文摘Anti-globalization trends are in play in the US and Western Europe where electorates are recalcitrant to allow immigrants into their societies, national sovereignty is sought in certain geographic areas, and the national mood seeks to suppress newly rising countries' trade and development. The continuation of economic downturn in Western countries is reinforced by their internal wealth gap and external competition. As capitalism's demand for profit is now being critiqued along with the emergent profit prospects to be delivered by pending technological progress, the temper of the times could temporarily slow down but not reverse globalization. Timely discussions about reform of international economic order and about an effective national development model should seek sustainable solutions for healthy, stable globalization and development of the world economy.
文摘With the spread of globalization and information technology, the status of English as a lingua franca worldwide is undisputable. Consequently, the impact of globalization on ELT (English language teaching) is phenomenal. In responding to the impact of global competitors and internationalization, English teaching is often regarded as a principal issue in education. English education is treated as a tool to keep up with the rapid globalization of the world economy. Discussing ELT in Taiwan as an example, this paper aims to raise caution among the periphery educators that under the impact of globalization, the imposition of western culture and language via ELT could be potentially hegemonic and harmful to the local culture and language. This paper will be organized into three parts. Firstly, the impact of globalization on the dominance of English will be discussed. Secondly, the potential threats of linguistic hegemony via ELT will be analyzed. Thirdly, proactive solutions to the hegemonic threats of ELT are proposed as the key to ride out the wave of globalization.
文摘Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the complex linkages between climate change and water. The likely warmer climate induced by the climate change is set to alter hydrological cycle and the shifting pattern of the rainfall would affect the spatial and temporal distribution of runoff, soil moisture, and surface and groundwater reserves. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the impacts of climate change on water and devise adaptation measures including management structures and processes by which one can deal with this challenge. The paper highlights with the global overview of climate change impacts on water in the arid region, supported and substantiated through scientific evidence drawn from IPCC reports and other relevant documents. This paper provides an overview of water resource management challenges including transboundary geopolitical concerns documented across the world and emphasizes the importance of an integrated framework for adaptive policy making. Further, it examines the viable water resource management options for various sectors and regions and showcases some of the international best practices in adaptation and mitigation. The paper also explains the complementary role of traditional knowledge in coping with climate change risks and uncertainties and the need for a balanced view in designing adaptation and mitigation strategies.
基金National Social Science Foundation for the Youth Scholars of China:The Internal Origins of Chinese External Imbalances(Grant No.12 CJL055)Educational Development Foundation of Department of International Economic and Trade,Xiamen University:Research on the Effect of Outsourcing on China's Economy(Grant No.201112111)Humanities and Social Science Project for the Youth Scholars of the Ministry of Education:Research on China's Current Account Adjustment Mode Under the Public Finance(Grant No.11YJC790281)
文摘With today's economic globalization,inter-provincial trade plays an important role in a country's economy.This paper is the first to adopt the input-output tables of 30 Chinese provinces and to summarize the evolution of China's inter-provincial trade from1987 to 2007.This paper reaches the following conclusions.First,China's inter-provincial trade has sustained a period of rapid growth.In 2007,the total volume of inter-provincial trade was twice the amount of international trade,with the eastern region accounting for the majority of the inter-provincial trade volume.GDP may have a greater effect on interprovincial trade than geographic distance does.Second,inter-provincial trade maintains a high level of concentration and overlaps with the high concentration of GDP.Third,the inter-provincial trade dependence of Chinese provinces tends to increase,an indication of the growing domestic market integration.Moreover,the eastern region's dependence on inter-provincial trade is higher than the central and western regions'.Fourth,the share of inter-provincial trade in the overall external trade of Chinese provinces has a declining tendency,which indicates a slower process of China's domestic market integration compared with international market integration.However,in terms of proportion,the external trade of most Chinese provinces is still dominated by inter-provincial trade.Fifth,most provinces with longstanding inter-provincial trade deficits are in the central and western regions.
基金Supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(No.2012AA041403)National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.60905061,61305107)+1 种基金the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.ZXH2012N003)the Scientific Research Funds for Civil Aviation University of China(No.2012QD23x)
文摘When a vehicle travels in urban areas, onboard global positioning system (GPS) signals may be obstructed by high-rise buildings and thereby cannot provide accurate positions. It is proposed to perform localization by registering ground images to a 2D building boundary map which is generated from aerial images. Multilayer feature graphs (MFG) is employed to model building facades from the ground images. MFG was reported in the previous work to facilitate the robot scene understand- ing in urhan areas. By constructing MFG, the 2D/3D positions of features can be obtained, inclu- cling line segments, ideal lines, and all primary vertical planes. Finally, a voting-based feature weighted localization method is developed based on MFGs and the 2D building boundary map. The proposed method has been implemented and validated in physical experiments. In the proposed ex- periments, the algorithm has achieved an overall localization accuracy of 2.2m, which is better than commercial GPS working in open environments.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41222034 and 41421004)
文摘The interannual variability of global temperature and precipitation during the last millennium is analyzed using the results of ten coupled climate models participating in the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 3. It is found that large temperature(precipitation) variability is most dominant at high latitudes(tropical monsoon regions), and the seasonal magnitudes are greater than the annual mean. Significant multi-decadal-scale changes exist throughout the whole period for the zonal mean of both temperature and precipitation variability, while their long-term trends are indistinctive. The volcanic forcings correlate well with the temperature variability at midlatitudes, indicating possible leading drivers for the interannual time scale climate change.
文摘Both academia and actual economic sectors have certain misunderstandings regarding the development of China's open economy. Since its accession to the WTO, China has in fact had an open economy and not an "export-oriented" economy. China's trade imbalance in the global economy is merely a result of economic disparities between the world's more- and less- developed regions combined with the rational optimization of resources. The current situation, wherein China appears to be heavily export-oriented, stems naturally from the real economy moving towards a dynamic equilibrium against a backdrop of economic globalization and deepening international specialization. We have concluded that domestic consumption and external demand reinforce each other, and the development of an open economy in China is therefore not at odds with expanding domestic consumption.
基金supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB10010100)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1562213 and 41272042)
文摘The Lungmachi Formation is widely distributed in Guizhou, Chongqing and the adjacent area. It is important for the study of Silurian biostratigraphy and shale-gas investigation. Based on those biostratigraphically well-studied sections from Guiyang to Huayingshan, we reveal the stage-progressive distribution pattern of the Lungmachi black shales. The distribution of the Lungmachi black shales in the studying area can be subdivided into four geographic belts from the south to the north,reflecting the joint effect of regional and global environmental changes. The graptolite depth zonation model was adopted herein to infer the water depth of major graptolite assemblages from the black shales. The changes in the water depth indicate two major stages. The first stage is named the transgressive distribution stage which ranged from the Persculptograptus persculptus Biozone(LM1, upper Hirnantian) to the Coronograptus cyphus Biozone(LM5, upper Rhuddanian), an interval mostly controlled by global sea-level rise. The second stage, ranging from the Demirastrites triangulatus Biozone(LM6, lower Aeronian) to the Spirograptus guerichi Biozone(LM9, lower Telychian), is named the regressive shrinking stage, during which the black shales were gradually replaced by mixed-facies or carbonate sediments from the south to the north, representing the effects of the persistent uplifting of the Central Guizhou Oldland.
基金National Basic Research Program of China,No.2012CB955702
文摘The Pearl River Delta on China's coast is a region that is seriously threatened by sea level rise and storm surges induced by global climate change, which causes flooding of large areas of farmland and huge agricultural losses. Based on relevant research and experience, a loss evaluation model of farmland yield caused by sea level rise and storm surges was established. In this model, the area of submerged farmland, area of crops, and per unit yield of every type of crop were considered, but the impact of wind, flooding time, changes in land use and plant structure were not considered for long-term prediction. Taking the Pearl River Delta region in Guangdong as the study area, we estimated and analyzed the spatial distribution and loss of farmlands for different scenarios in the years 2030, 2050, and 2100, using a digital elevation model, land-use data, local crop structure, rotation patterns, and yield loss ratios for different submerged heights obtained from field survey and questionnaires. The results show that the proportion of submerged farmlands and losses of agricultural production in the Pearl River Delta region will increase gradually from 2030 to 2100. Yangjiang, Foshan, and Dongguan show obvious increases in submerged farmlands, while Guangzhou and Zhuhai show slow increases. In agricultural losses, vegetables would sustain the largest loss of production, followed by rice and peanuts. The greatest loss of rice crops would occur in Jiangmen, and the loss of vegetable crops would be high in Shanwei and Jiangmen. Although losses of peanut crops are generally lower, Jiangmen, Guangzhou, and Shanwei would experience relatively high losses. Finally, some measures to defend against storm surges are suggested, such as building sea walls and gates in Jiangmen, Huizhou, and Shanwei, enforcing ecological protection to reduce destruction from storm surges, and strengthening disaster warning systems.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.41371030
文摘The influence of monsoon climatic characteristics makes the tropics of China different from those of other parts of the world. Therefore, the location of the northern boundary of China's tropical zone has been one of the most controversial issues in the study of comprehensive physical regionalisation in China. This paper introduces developments in the study of the northern boundary of China's tropical zone, in which different scholars delimit the boundary with great differences based on different regionalisation objectives, indexes, and methods. The main divergence of opinion is found in different understandings of zonal vegetation, agricultural vegetation type, cropping systems, tropical soil type and tropical characteristics. In this study, we applied the Geo Detector model, which measures the spatial stratified heterogeneity, to validate the northern boundaries of the tropical zone delimited by six principal scholars. The results show that the mean q-statistic value of the higher latitude boundary delimited by Ren Mei'e is the largest(q=0.37), suggesting that, of the rival views, it best reflects the regional differences between China's tropical and subtropical zones, but it is not necessarily suitable for guiding the development of tropical agriculture. The mean values of the q-statistics of Zheng Du's line and Yu Xianfang's line around the Leizhou Peninsula at a lower latitude were smaller, at 0.10 and 0.08 respectively, indicating that the regional differences were smaller than those of Ren Mei'e's boundary. Against the background of global climate change, the climate itself is changing in fluctuation. It is, thus, worth our further research whether the northern boundary of the tropical zone should not be a fixed line but rather should fluctuate within a certain scope to reflect these changes.