Quantitative contributions of climate change and human activities to vegetation dynamics in the Zoige Plateau from 2001 to 2020

Climate change and human activities such as overgrazing and rapid development of tourism simultaneously affected the vegetation of the Zoige Plateau.However,the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation and the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to these vegetation dynamics remain unclear.Therefore,clarifying how and why the vegetation on the Zoige Plateau changed can provide a scientific basis for the sustainable development of the region.Here,we investigate NDVI trends using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)as an indicator of vegetation greenness and distinguish the relative effects of climate changes and human activities on vegetation changes by utilizing residual trend analysis and the Geodetector.We find a tendency of vegetation greening from 2001 to 2020,with significant greening accounting for 21.44%of the entire region.However,browning area expanded rapidly after 2011.Warmer temperatures are the primary driver of vegetation changes in the Zoige Plateau.Climatic variations and human activities were responsible for 65.57%and 34.43%of vegetation greening,and 39.14%and 60.86%of vegetation browning,respectively,with browning concentrated along the Yellow,Black and White Rivers.Compared to 2001-2010,the inhibitory effect of human activity and climate fluctuations on vegetation grew dramatically between 2011 and 2020.

Changes of coastline and tidal flat and its implication for ecological protection under human activities: Take China’s Bohai Bay as an example

The change processes and trends of shoreline and tidal flat forced by human activities are essential issues for the sustainability of coastal area,which is also of great significance for understanding coastal ecological environment changes and even global changes.Based on field measurements,combined with Linear Regression(LR)model and Inverse Distance Weighing(IDW)method,this paper presents detailed analysis on the change history and trend of the shoreline and tidal flat in Bohai Bay.The shoreline faces a high erosion chance under the action of natural factors,while the tidal flat faces a different erosion and deposition patterns in Bohai Bay due to the impact of human activities.The implication of change rule for ecological protection and recovery is also discussed.Measures should be taken to protect the coastal ecological environment.The models used in this paper show a high correlation coefficient between observed and modeling data,which means that this method can be used to predict the changing trend of shoreline and tidal flat.The research results of present study can provide scientific supports for future coastal protection and management.

Age Structure and Change Trend of Tobacco Farmers:A Case Study of Shashi Town,Liuyang City,Hunan Province

Taking the tobacco-growing area of Shashi Town,Liuyang City as the object,the number of registered,newly added and resigned tobacco farmers in each year,average age,number and proportion of tobacco farmers of different ages,number and proportion of tobacco farmers born in different eras,as well as planting scale and planting history of flue-cured tobacco in the last 10 years were analyzed statistically.The results showed that the number of tobacco farmers in Shashi Town showed a rapid decline trend from 2012 to 2018,while the average age continuously increased,and the average planting scale rose in a wave like way.From 2019 to 2021,the decline rate of the number of tobacco farmers slowed down,and the average planting scale continuously increased,while the aging of tobacco farmers accelerated.Meantime,the birth years of tobacco farmers were further concentrated in the 1960s,and they were mainly at the age of 50-59.The tobacco industry in Shashi Town of Liuyang City is facing the crisis of aging tobacco farmers and no successor of flue-cured tobacco planting,and it is predicted that the next 5-10 years will continue the change trend from 2019 to 2021.

Detecting Climate Change Trend, Size, and Change Point Date on Annual Maximum Time Series Rainfall Data for Warri, Nigeria

The study focused on the detection of indicators of climate change in 24-hourly annual maximum series (AMS) rainfall data collected for 36 years (1982-2017) for Warri Township, using different statistical methods yielded a statistically insignificant positive mild trend. The IMD and MCIMD downscaled model’s time series data respectively produced MK statistics varying from 1.403 to 1.4729, and 1.403 to 1.463 which were less than the critical Z-value of 1.96. Also, the slope magnitude obtained showed a mild increasing trend in variation from 0.0189 to 0.3713, and 0.0175 to 0.5426, with the rate of change in rainfall intensity at 24 hours duration as 0.4536 and 0.42 mm/hr.year (4.536 and 4.2 mm/decade) for the IMD and the MCIMD time series data, respectively. The trend change point date occurred in the year 2000 from the distribution-free CUSUM test with the trend maintaining a significant and steady increase from 2010 to 2015. Thus, this study established the existence of a trend, which is an indication of a changing climate, and satisfied the condition for rainfall Non-stationary intensity-duration-frequency (NS-IDF) modeling required for infrastructural design for combating flooding events.

Comparative Analysis of Climatic Change Trend and Change-Point Analysis for Long-Term Daily Rainfall Annual Maximum Time Series Data in Four Gauging Stations in Niger Delta

The aim of this study is to establish the prevailing conditions of changing climatic trends and change point dates in four selected meteorological stations of Uyo, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Warri in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Using daily or 24-hourly annual maximum series (AMS) data with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the modified Chowdury Indian Meteorological Department (MCIMD) models were adopted to downscale the time series data. Mann-Kendall (MK) trend and Sen’s Slope Estimator (SSE) test showed a statistically significant trend for Uyo and Benin, while Port Harcourt and Warri showed mild trends. The Sen’s Slope magnitude and variation rate were 21.6, 10.8, 6.00 and 4.4 mm/decade, respectively. The trend change-point analysis showed the initial rainfall change-point dates as 2002, 2005, 1988, and 2000 for Uyo, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Warri, respectively. These prove positive changing climatic conditions for rainfall in the study area. Erosion and flood control facilities analysis and design in the Niger Delta will require the application of Non-stationary IDF modelling.

Long-term and inter-annual mass changes of Patagonia Ice Field from GRACE

Using more than 14 years of GRACE(Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite gravimetry observations, we estimate the ice loss rate for the Patagonia Ice Field(PIF) of South America. After correcting the effects of glacier isostatic adjustment(GIA) and hydrological variations, the ice loss rate is -23.5 ± 8.1 Giga ton per year(Gt/yr) during the period April 2002 through December 2016, equivalent to an average ice thickness change of-1.3 m/yr if evenly distributed over PIF. The PIF ice mass change series also show obvious inter-annual variations during the entire period. For the time spans April 2002 to December 2007, January 2008 to December 2012 and January 2013 to December 2016, the ice loss rates are -26.4,-9.0 and -25.0 Gt/yr, respectively, indicating that the ice melting experienced significant slowing down and accelerating again in the past decade. Comparison with time series from temperature and precipitation data over PIF suggests that the inter-annual ice losses might not be directly correlated with the temperature changes and precipitation anomalies, and thus their interrelation is intricate. However, the dramatic ice loss acceleration in 2016(with more than 100 Gt within the first half of the year) appears closely related with the evident temperature increase and severe precipitation shortage over 2016, which are likely correlated with the strong E1 Nino event around 2016. Moreover, we compare the GRACE spherical harmonic(SH) and mass concentration(Mascon) solutions in estimating the PIF ice loss rate, and find that the Mascon result has larger uncertainty in leakage error correction,while the SH solutions can better correct leakage errors based on a constrained forward modeling iterative method. Thus the GRACE SH solutions with constrained forward modeling recovery are recommended to evaluating the ice mass change of PIF or other glacier regions with relatively smaller spatial scales.

Trend of Salt Lake Changes in the Background of Global Warming and Tactics for Adaptation to the Changes

Salt lakes are a mirror of climatic changes and provide holographic records of environmental changes of lakes. According to a study of geological hazards in typical salt lake areas in China and other regions, the authors explain how geological hazards in salt lake areas are caused by natural agents and how humans can seek benefits, avoid hazards and reduce losses on the premise that they have monitored and mastered the trend of salt lake changes in advance and even can store flood and recharge water in lakes and extract saline resources. The climate in western China is probably turning from warm-dry to warm-moist. The authors analyze the change trend of salt lakes sensu lato (with salinity≥0.3 wt% (NaCl)eq) and salt lakes sensu stricto (with salinity ≥3.5 wt% (NaCl)eq) in China in such climatic conditions and distinguish three types of salt lake areas (i.e. lake water rising type, lake water falling type and lake water rising and unstable type) according to the characteristics of lake water rising and shrinking. In order to conform to the climatic and lake changes in China's salt lake areas, the authors propose to add and improve hydrological and meteorological observation stations and integrate observations with remote sensing monitoring in important salt lake areas and set up multidisciplinary and interdepartmental basic projects to monitor and study recent climatic and environmental changes in salt lake areas of western China. Moreover, it is necessary to build additional flood-control and drought-preventing water conservancy facilities in key salt lake areas and work out measures for ecological protection in salt lake areas. Full consideration should be given to the influence of flooding when building saltfields and implementing capital projects.

Climate change trend and its effects on reference evapotranspiration at Linhe Station, Hetao Irrigation District

Linhe National Meteorological Station, a representative weather station in the Hetao Irrigation District of China, was selected as the research site for the present study. Changes in climatic variables and reference evapotranspiration （ET0 ） （estimated by the Penman-Monteith method） were detected using Mann-Kendall tests and Sen＇s slope estimator, respectively. The authors analyzed the relationship between the ET0 change and each climatic variable＇s change. From 1954 to 2012, the air temperature showed a significant increasing trend, whereas relative humidity and wind speed decreased dramatically. These changes resulted in a slight increase in ETo. The radiative component of total ET0 increased from 50% to 57%, indicating that this component made a greater contribution to the increase in total ETo than the aerodynamic component, especially during the crop growing season （from April to October）. The sensitivity analysis showed that ETo in Hetao is most sensitive to mean daily air temperature （11.8%）, followed by wind speed （-7.3%） and relative humidity （4.8%）. Changes in sunshine duration had only a minor effect on ET0 over the past 59 years.

Trend Analysis in Standardized Precipitation Index and Standardized Anomaly Index in the Context of Climate Change in Southern Togo

Rainfall and temperature are climatic variables mostly affected by global warming. This study aimed to investigate the temporal trend analysis in annual temperature and rainfall in the Southern Togo for the 1970-2014 period. Daily and annual rainfall and temperature were collected from four weather stations at Atakpame, Kouma-Konda, Lome, and Tabligbo. The temperature variability was determined by the Standardized Anomaly Index (SAI) and the annual rainfall variability was determined using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The Mann-Kendall test was used for trend analysis. Mann-Kendall statistical test for the mean annual, mean annual minimum and maximum temperature from 1970 to 2014 showed significant warming trends for all stations except Kouma-Konda where mean annual maximum temperature had exhibited non significant cooling trend (P = 0.01). For Standardized Precipitation Index in the 12-month time scale, dry tendency dominates Atakpamé (55.7%) and Kouma-Konda (55.5%) while wet tendency dominates slightly Lomé (50.9%) and Tabligbo (51.4%). The Mann-Kendall test revealed an increasing trend in standardized anomaly index at all the sites, prejudicial to rainfed agriculture practiced by about 90% of Togolese crop growers. The trend analysis in the climate variables indicated a change in climate that necessitates some specific actions for resources management sustainability and conservation.

Climate Change: Trends and People’s Perception in Nepal

In the context of climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as floods and droughts will increase which could put tremendous challenges in water resources management in the coming days. While scientific knowledge on climate threats and changing climate patterns are essential, it is also important to consider the impacts in relation to how the threats are perceived and handled by local people. This paper intends to assess the trend and people’s perception on temperature and precipitation. Three focus groups’ discussion and a total number of 240 households were interviewed during field visit. The collected information was scaled from the least preferred-1 to the most preferred-5 based on their preferences. The trend of mean of annual average, maximum and minimum temperature indicates that the temperature has increased significantly and precipitation intensity and magnitude are also in increasing trend in the monsoon and postmonsoon seasons which may raise the extreme flood events. These facts were verified with the people’s perception. This finding could be useful for formulation of effective flood management policy and plan in this river basin as well as very applicable for other similar areas.

Changes of spring wind erosion based on wind erosion climate factor in the black soil region of Northeast China

The dry and windy climate and low ground cover in spring in the black soil region of Northeast China make the soil strongly affected by wind erosion,which seriously threatens the food security and ecological security of this region.In this paper,based on the daily observation data of 124 meteorological stations in study area from 1961 to 2020,seasonal and monthly wind erosion climate factor(C)in spring(March to May)were calculated by using the method proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO),the wind erosion characterization in spring were systematically analyzed based on C by various statistical analysis methods.The results showed that in the past 60 years,spring wind erosion climate factor(CSp)and monthly C of the whole region and each province(region)all showed highly significant decreasing trend,but they began to show rebounded trend in the middle or late 2000s.CSp of the study area showed a significant upward trend since 2008 with an increase of 4.59(10a)^(-1).The main contributors to this upward trend are the changes of C in March and in April.For the four provinces(regions),CSp in Heilongjiang,Jilin,Liaoning and eastern Inner Mongolia all showed rebounded since 2008,2011,2008 and 2009,respectively.The rebounded trend of CSp in eastern Inner Mongolia was the most obvious with a tendency rate of 11.27(10a)^(-1),and its mutation occurred after 1984.The rebound trend of CSp in Heilongjiang Province takes the second place,with a trend rate of 4.72(10a)^(-1),but there’s no obvious time mutation characteristics.The spatial characteristics of CSpand monthly C are similar,showing decreasing characteristics centered on the typical black soil belt of Northeast China.Compared with 1961-1990,in the period from 1991 to 2020,the proportion of high value areas(CSp>35,monthly C>10)has decreased to varying degrees,while the proportion of low value areas(CSp≤10,monthly C≤4)has increased.The trends of seasonal and monthly C in 82.2%~87.7%of the stations show significant decreases at 95%confidence level.CSp is closely related to wind speed at 2m height,temperature difference,minimum temperature and precipitation in the same period,of which the correlation between CSp and wind speed is the strongest,indicating that the main control factor for CSp in the study area is wind speed,but the impact of the change of temperature and precipitation on CSp cannot be ignored.

Change Trends of Accumulated Temperature and Effects on Agricultural Production in Shenyang during Recent 58 Years

[Objective] The aim was to study the change trend of accumulated temperature in Shenyang in recent 58 years, as well as its effect on agricultural production. [Method] Based on the surface temperature data in Shenyang, the change trends of ≥0 ℃ and ≥10 ℃ accumulated temperature in Shenyang in recent 58 years were analyzed by means of climatic statistics method, and the effects of accumulated temperature variation on agricultural production were discussed. [Result] In recent 58 years, the first day with temperature ≥0 ℃ advanced 10 d, and the last day put off slightly, while sustained days prolonged 13 d, and ≥0 ℃ accumulated temperature increased by 343 ℃·d; meanwhile, the first day with temperature ≥10 ℃ advanced 9 d, and the last day put off 8 d, while sustained days prolonged 16 d, and ≥10 ℃ accumulated temperature increased by 370 ℃·d; compared with the first 20 years, sustained days with temperature ≥0 ℃ and ≥10 ℃ prolonged 9 d in the last 20 years, and ≥0 ℃ and ≥10 ℃ accumulated temperature increased by 196 and 202 ℃·d, respectively. In addition, the increase of heat resources affected agricultural production in Shenyang. [Conclusion] The study could provide theoretical foundation for grasping heat resources variation and adjusting agriculture distribution.

CLIMATE CHANGE:LONG-TERM TRENDS AND SHORT-TERM OSCILLATIONS

Identifying the Northern Hemisphere （NH） temperature reconstruction and instrumental data for the past 1000 years shows that climate change in the last millennium includes long-term trends and varioas oscillations. Two long-term trends and the quasi-70-year oscillation were detected in the global temperature series tbr the last 140 years and the NH millennium series. One important feature was emphasized that temperature decreases slowly but it increases rapidly based on the analysis of different series. Benefits can be obtained of climate change from understanding various long-term trends and oscillations. Millennial temperature proxies from the natural climate system and time series of nonlinear model system are used in understanding the natural climate change and recognizing potential benefits by using the method of wavelet transform analysis. The results from numerical modeling show that major oscillations contained in numerical solutions on the interdecadal timescale are consistent with that of natural proxies. It seems that these oscillations in the climate change are not directly linked with the solar radiation as an external tbrcing. This investigation may conclude that the climate variability at the interdecadal timescale strongly depends on the internal nonlinear effects in the climate system.

Effects of temperature and precipitation on drought trends in Xinjiang, China

The characteristics of drought in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region(Xinjiang),China have changed due to changes in the spatiotemporal patterns of temperature and precipitation,however,the effects of temperature and precipitation—the two most important factors influencing drought—have not yet been thoroughly explored in this region.In this study,we first calculated the standard precipitation evapotranspiration index(SPEI)in Xinjiang from 1980 to 2020 based on the monthly precipitation and monthly average temperature.Then the spatiotemporal characteristics of temperature,precipitation,and drought in Xinjiang from 1980 to 2020 were analyzed using the Theil-Sen median trend analysis method and Mann-Kendall test.A series of SPEI-based scenario-setting experiments by combining the observed and detrended climatic factors were utilized to quantify the effects of individual climatic factor(i.e.,temperature and precipitation).The results revealed that both temperature and precipitation had experienced increasing trends at most meteorological stations in Xinjiang from 1980 to 2020,especially the spring temperature and winter precipitation.Due to the influence of temperature,trends of intensifying drought have been observed at spring,summer,autumn,and annual scales.In addition,the drought trends in southern Xinjiang were more notable than those in northern Xinjiang.From 1980 to 2020,temperature trends exacerbated drought trends,but precipitation trends alleviated drought trends in Xinjiang.Most meteorological stations in Xinjiang exhibited temperature-dominated drought trend except in winter;in winter,most stations exhibited precipitation-dominated wetting trend.The findings of this study highlight the importance of the impact of temperature on drought in Xinjiang and deepen the understanding of the factors influencing drought.

Future Extremes Temperature: Trends and Changes Assessment over the Mono River Basin, Togo (West Africa)

This study assessed the extreme temperatures trends and changes over Mono River Basin under the highest greenhouse gas emission scenario RCP8.5. Simulations of five (5) regional climate models (RCMs) provided by Africa-CORDEX program were selected from the eighth (8) considered. Future trends in temperature percentiles, including extremes, are used to assess changes in the distribution of daily temperature over Mono Basin in Togo. Changes of temperature and Extreme low (high) temperatures from the baseline period 1961-2010 were computed for future (2051-2100). This analysis reveals that in the north of the basin, for the positive trends, the maximum is 0.82°C·year-1 given by model MPI-ESM2 at Tchamba while the strongest negative change is 0.26°C·year-1 given by model MIROC at Sotouboua. In the south of the basin, the strongest negative trend is of 0.03°C·year-1 given by model (A) CNRM-CMA5. The maximum ones of the trends for models-mean are all positive except at Anié. Higher percentiles of minimum and maximum temperature will increase at a greater rate than the lower percentiles during dry and rainy seasons (with differences more pronounced for maximum values) over the north. Concerning future changes, almost all the RCMs predicted an increase of maximum and minimum temperatures over most parts of the Mono Basin, particularly in the north. Finally, results predicted an increase of TX90P (TX10P) and TN90P (TN10P) from 10% to 45% (13% to 40%) and 0% to 35% (12% Mean value), respectively over Mono Basin.

Simulation of Change Trend of Drought in Shaanxi Province in Future Based on PRECIS Model

[Objective] The aim was to predict the change trend of drought in Shaanxi Province in future. [Method] Based on the regional climate model PRECIS from Hadley Climate Center, British Meteorological Bureau, taking precipitation anomaly percentage as assessment index, the change trend of drought in Shaanxi Province in reference years (1971-1990) was simulated, and the change trend of drought in Shaanxi Province from 2071 to 2100 was predicted. [Result] The simulated value of drought frequency in reference years could simulate the distribution of drought well, namely drought frequency was high in the north and low in the south; annual mean frequency of drought above second grade decreased gradually from north to south in future, and it was the highest in northern Shaanxi (above 4 times) and lowest in southern Shaanxi (below 2.5 times); drought frequency in future went down in northern Shaanxi from southern Yulin to Yan’an, eastern Guanzhong (including Weibei) and the west of southern Shaanxi, while it went up in the north of northern Shaanxi, Qinling Mountains and Shangluo region in western Guanzhong. [Conclusion] The study could provide theoretical references for the research on the change trend of drought in Shaanxi Province in future.

Non-Stationary Trend Change Point Pattern Using 24-Hourly Annual Maximum Series (AMS) Precipitation Data

This paper mainly investigated the basic information about non-stationary trend change point patterns. After performing the investigation, the corresponding results show the existence of a trend, its magnitude, and change points in 24-hourly annual maximum series (AMS) extracted from monthly maximum series (MMS) data for thirty years (1986-2015) rainfall data for Uyo metropolis. Trend analysis was performed using Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen’s slope estimator (SSE) used to obtain the trend magnitude, while the trend change point analysis was conducted using the distribution-free cumulative sum test (CUSUM) and the sequential Mann-Kendall test (SQMK). A free CUSUM plot date of change point of rainfall trend as 2002 at 90% confidence interval was obtained from where the increasing trend started and became more pronounced in the year 2011, another change point year from the SQMK plot with the trend intensifying. The SSE gave an average rate of change in rainfall as 2.1288 and 2.16 mm/year for AMS and MMS time series data respectively. Invariably, the condition for Non-stationary concept application is met for intensity-duration-frequency modeling.

Change Point Detection and Trend Analysis for Time Series

Trend analysis and change point detection in a time series are frequent analysis tools.Change point detection is the identification of abrupt variation in the process behaviour due to natural or artificial changes,whereas trend can be defined as estimation of gradual departure from past norms.We analyze the time series data in the presence of trend,using Cox-Stuart methods together with the change point algorithms.We applied the methods to the nearsurface wind speed time series for Australia as an example.The trends in near-surface wind speeds for Australia have been investigated based upon our newly developed wind speed datasets,which were constructed by blending observational data collected at various heights using local surface roughness information.The trend in wind speed at 10 m is generally increasing while at 2 m it tends to be decreasing.Significance testing,change point analysis and manual inspection of records indicate several factors may be contributing to the discrepancy,such as systematic biases accompanying instrument changes,random data errors(e.g.accumulation day error)and data sampling issues.Homogenization technique and multiple-period trend analysis based upon change point detections have thus been employed to clarify the source of the inconsistencies in wind speed trends.

MODIS-Derived Nighttime Arctic Land-Surface Temperature Nascent Trends and Non-Stationary Changes

Arctic nighttime land-surface temperatures derived by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors onboard the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites are investigated. We use the local equator crossing times of 22:30 and 01:30, respectively, in the analysis of changes, trends and variations on the Arctic region and within 120° sectors. We show increases in the number of days above 0°C and significant increase trends over their decadal periods of March 2000 through 2010 (MODIS Terra) and July 2002 through 2012 (MODIS Aqua). The MODIS Aqua nighttime Arctic land-surface temperature change, +0.2°C ± 0.2°C with P-value of 0.01 indicates a reduction relative to the MODIS Terra nighttime Arctic land-surface temperature change, +1.8°C ± 0.3°C with P-value of 0.01. This reduction is a decadal non-stationary component of the Arctic land-surface temperature changes. The reduction is greatest, -1.3°C ± 0.2°C with P-value of 0.01 in the Eastern Russia— Western North American sector of the Arctic during the July 2002 through 2012.

Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Maximum and Minimum Temperature Trends in Northern Sudan during (1990-2019)

The study addresses an urgent and globally significant issue of climate change by focusing on the detailed spatial and temporal analysis of temperature trends in Northern Sudan. It fills a critical research gap by providing localized data over a substantial period (1990-2019), which could help in understanding the nuanced impacts of climate change in Sahel regions like Northern Sudan. In addition, the comprehensive coverage of both spatial and temporal dimensions, supported by a substantial dataset from five meteorological stations, provides a thorough understanding of the subject area. The utilization of robust statistical methods (Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope analysis) for analyzing temperature trends adds scientific rigor and credibility to the findings. Our results reveal a consistently increasing trend in maximum temperatures across most stations, particularly during the hot season (AMJ). However, the wet season (JAS) shows high maximum temperatures but no significant trend. Moreover, significant increasing trends in minimum temperatures were observed in all stations except Abu Hamed, where the trend, although increasing, did not reach statistical significance during the hot and cold seasons, and the coldest temperatures were observed during the cold season. These findings underscore the complex temperature dynamics in Northern Sudan and highlight the need for continued monitoring and adaptive measures in response to ongoing climate changes in the region.