Impact of Climatic Change on Agricultural Production and Response Strategies in China

A number of studies indicate that global climate warming has been increasing,especially in recent decades.Climate warming greatly affects global agro-production and food security-becoming a hotspot of global environmental change.This paper proposes a structural and orientational framework for scientifically addressing climatic change impact on agro-production.Through literature reviews and comparative studies,the paper systematically summarizes influencing mechanisms and impact of climate warming on such agro-production factors as light,temperature,soil quality and water environment.The impact of climate warming on cultivation regions,cropping systems,crop pests,agroproduction capacity,agro-economy and farm management is analyzed.Then,suitable climate-adapting agro-development strategies are put forward for different regions in China.The strategies are carefully selected from a repository of international tested climatic change countermeasures in agriculture at national or district level.

Spatial-temporal Patterns of Land-use Change in Typical Transect Area Along China National Highway 106 During 1996-2008

Based on land-use database updated with the survey of 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, this paper analyzed the land-use changes in the typical transect area along National Highway 106 with the aid of GIS technology and quantitative models. The results showed that arable land had been continuously decreased from 1996 to 2008, with a loss of 65.85× 10^3 hm2 and an average decrement of 5.49×10^3 hm^2 per year, and the loss in northern areas was larger; garden land and woodland were gradually centralized to the predominance area with an increment of 25.73×10^3 hm2 and 22.37×10^3 hm2, respectively; residential and industrial land increased year after year, and the transportation land showed the equalized developing spatial pattern; the increment of construction land and encroachment on arable land in the area were deeply influenced by the national macroscopic land-use policies, the rapid advance of urbanization and the development level of the regional economy. Through this case study, it is suggested that differential land- use policies should be adopted to create good environmental conditions to guarantee food security and to promote the economic development.

Analysis of nutrient content and assessment of economic value for major salt-tolerant plants in coastal areas:a case study of Dongying City, Shandong Province

Salinization of soil is a worldwide problem concerning resources and ecology,especially serious in coastal areas.Testing of 26 sorts of data or parameters are carried out on leaves of 22 plant species(in 24 plant variety) of existing main salt-tolerant plant of the Yellow River Delta region.Data or parameters include the following ele-ments:contents of K+,Na+,Ca2+,Mg2+ and Cl-,contents of protein,fat,total energy,ash and contents of 17 amino acids.The results show that these tested plants have economic values.For example,according to their uses,they can be divided into edible plants,forage plants,medicine or health plants,and some of them can be used for multipurposes.These plants have played important roles in the sustainable utilization of plant resources in coastal areas.This paper has taken evaluations on the economic uses of salt-tolerant plants and given suggestions for saline soil improvement and resource utilization in coastal areas.Based on the results of investigation and experiments,we suppose that the salt-tolerant plants in coastal areas can be grouped into 9 main groups according to their economic value:pioneer plants for saline land improvement,medicine,edible and forage plants,industry material,forestation,breeding material,energy plants and eco-tourism resources.

Technology and Infrastructure Considerations for E-Commerce in Chinese Agriculture

Information technology （IT） was one of the most intensively studied and extensively applied technologies in the 20th century and its research and application will be even more accelerated in the 21st century. The impact of IT is more farreaching than any one may have had imagined, encompassing all facets and sectors of society. Economically, e-commerce generated more than $1.5 trillion in the US in 2004 and is projected to be 30, 15 and 2.6% of the total manufacturing, whole sales and retail sales in the US in 2006 respectively. IT research in agriculture has so far been particularly applied to such fields as precision farming and bioinformatics and in extension and farming practices. As such, its potential application in agricultural e-commerce has only begun to be explored. The United States Department of Agriculture has identified four different functions that e-commerce firms perform in the agricultural sector. They are： （1） information distribution, （2） input supply, （3） commodity trading floor, and （4） logistics/supply chain management. Unlike other industrial products, agricultural products are much more diverse and difficult to process and handle. For instance, fruits and vegetables are perishable and have to reach the market and the hands of consumers within a short period of time. One of the problems for IT applications in agriculture is the lack of standard measures in characteristics and quality of perishable produce and processing foods. Standards are pre-requisites for effective IT application and e-commerce. According to the Global Commerce Initiative, standards bring scalability, portability and affordability to the business process. Standards speed up the supply chain and reduce errors and protect technology investments and ensure system to system interaction and interoperability. Because the complexity of issues involved in standardization, the process of standardization must involve the input and discussion from all segments of the society. Being the largest agricultural country in the world and one of the most active trading partners in the international market, China must also be involved in determining the standards for both domestic and international trades. These measures are the necessary foundations for e-commerce in agriculture. In this paper, we provide a review of the technological development of standardization and coding that are prerequisites for IT application in e-commerce. This understanding is important for professionals in China to promote e- commerce in agriculture. Finally, we propose that a national committee to be formed in China, which includes IT experts from private sectors, academic professionals and governmental officials. This committee should consider the progress being made elsewhere in the world, the unique properties of Chinese commodities and appropriate business models to determine a set of standard measures that are transportable and communicable digitally in the world market for China＇s e- commerce in agriculture.

Induction of Root Hair Growth in a Phosphorus-Buffered Culture Solution

A system to control the release of phosphate in water was successfully established, based on solubility product of [Ca^2＋] and [PO4^3-] using tricalcium phosphate as P source in the hydroponic solution, and adding CaCl2 for supplementing extra Ca^2＋. The system, similar to soil solutions, was a P nutrient buffer solution with very low bioavailable P. The buffer solution induced the roots of both monocotyledon and dicotyledon species to grow abundant root hairs, 3 mm in maximum length. The monocotyledons were corn （Zea mays L.） （var. Yellow Rose）, wheat （Triticum aestivum L.） （var. Yanzhong 144）, Triticale secale L. （vat. Jingsong 5）, and ryegrass （Lolium rigidum L.） （var. Ruanni）, and the dicotyledons were Arabidopsis thaliana L. （var. Columbia）, white clover （Trifolium repens） （var. Kopu）, Lotus （Lotus peduncucatus Cav. Luliginosus Schkuhr） （var. Grasslands Maku）. For these species we proved that the root environment controls the induction of root hair formation. However, the hydroponic buffer solution failed to induce root hairs on the roots of onion （Allium cepa L.）. Other investigators have concluded that corn does not form root hairs in hydroponics, but abundant long root hairs on corn were induced by this buffer system. The roots with abundant long root hairs are called ＂hedgehog roots＂ because they have hairs everywhere just like a hedgehog.

GIS-based detection of land use transformation in the Loess Plateau： A case study in Baota District, Shaanxi Province, China

During the past decade, great efforts have been made to boost the land use trans- formation in the Loess Plateau, especially for reducing soil erosion by vegetation restoration measures. The Grain-for-Green project （GFG） is the largest ecological rehabilitation program in China, which has a positive impact on the vegetation restoration and sustainable devel- opment for the ecologically fragile region of west China. Based on the Landsat TM/ETM im- ages for three time periods （2000, 2005 and 2010）, this study applied the GIS technology and a hill-slope analytical model to reveal the spatio-temporal evolutional patterns of returning slope farmland to grassland or woodland in Baota District, Yan＇an city of Shaanxi province. Results showed that： （1） from 2000 to 2010, the area of farmland decreased by approximately 35,030 ha, which is the greatest decrease among all the land-use types, whereas grassland, woodland and construction land increased, of which grassland expanded rapidly by 26,380 ha （2） The annual variation rate of land-use dynamics was 1.98% during the period 2000-2010, of which the rate was 1.05% for the 2000-2005 period and 2.92% for the 2005-2010 period, respectively. Over the past decade, returning farmland to woodland or pastures was the main source of increased grassland and woodland, and the reduction of farmland contributed to the increase in grassland and woodland by 97.39% and 85.28%, respectively. （3） As the terrain slope increases, farmland decreased and woodland and grassland increased significantly. Areas with a slope ranging from 15° to 25° and less than 15° were the focus of the GFG project, accounting for 85% of the total area of farmland reduction. Meanwhile, the reduction in farmland was significant and spatially correlated with the increase in woodland and grass- land. （4） Between 2000 and 2010, the area of destruction of grass and trees in grasslands and woodlands for the reclamation of farmland was approximately 4596 ha. The area subject to the GFG policy was 4456 ha with a slope greater than 25° over the decade, but the area of farmland was still 10,357 ha in 2010. Our results indicate that there has still a great potential for returning the steep-slope farmlands to woodlands or grasslands in the Loess Plateau.

1985-2005年环渤海地区土地利用变化时空格局(英文)

Based on TM image data and other survey materials, this paper analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of land use change in the Bohai Rim during 1985-2005. The findings of this study are summarized as follows： （1） Land use pattern changed dramatically during 1985-2005. Industrial and residential land in urban and rural areas increased by 643,946 hm2 of which urban construction land had the largest and fastest increase of 294,953 hm2 at an annual rate of 3.72%. （2） The outward migration of rural population did not prevent the expansion of residential land in rural areas by 184,869 hm2. This increase reveals that construction of rural residences makes seriously wasteful and inefficient use of land. （3） Arable land, woodland and grassland decreased at a rate of -0.02%, -0.12% and -1.32% annually, while unused land shrank by 157,444 hm^2 at an annual rate of -1.69%. （4） The change of land use types showed marked fluctuations over the two stages （1985-1995 and 1995-2005） In particular, arable land, woodland and unused land experienced an inversed trend of change. （5） There was a significant interaction between arable land and woodland, industrial construction land in urban and rural areas showed a net trend of increase during the earlier period, but only adjustment to its internal structure during the second period. The loss of arable land to the construction of factories, mines and residences took place mainly in the fringe areas of large and medium-sized cities, along the routes of major roads, as well as in the economically developed coastal areas in the east. Such changes are closely related to the spatial differentiation of the level of urbanization and industrialization in the region.

A study on the spatial difference of farmland nitrogen nutrient budget in the Bohai Rim region, China

The Bohai Rim region is one the most important bases for commodity grain production in China. With the rapid pace of agricultural industrialization, nitrogenous fertilizer has been used at an ever increasing rate, which resulted in the trace of accumulative nitrogen in the soil and caused serious environmental problems. In this study we made use of the farmland nitrogen balance model to assess the spatial difference of farmland nitrogen nutrient budget in the Bohai Rim region in 2008 with the assistance of GIS. Our results indicated that： 1） Farmland in this region has a nitrogen surplus totaling 5.0822 million tons, or an average of 288.54 kg/ha. 2） In the Bohai Rim region, farmland nitrogen input and farmland nitrogen budget both show a spatial differentiation. Major grain-producing areas have a higher nitrogen input than that of the grazing-farming areas. The main sources of nitrogen input include chemical fertilizer, organic fertilizer, deposition from atmospheric drying and wetting, and biological fixation, which account for 79.47%, 9.53%, 4.62%, and 3.58% of the total input, respectively. Therefore, chemical fertilizer is the predominant source of nitrogen input to farmland. 3） A total of 3.3398 million tons of nitrogen were output from the farmland via harvested crops and it accounts for 52.36% of the total nitrogen output from farmland in this region. On average, the amount of nitrogen output from unit farmland is equal to 176.65kg/ha. This study has shed light on farmland nitrogen budget and its spatial variation in the study area, may provide scientific evidences for rationalizing the use of chemical fertilizer and managing agricultural operation on the regional scale and is also valuable for improving the economic and ecological efficiency of fertilizer use at the regional scale.