Hotspots of the sensitivity of the land surface hydrological cycle to climate change

Due to the shortage of the global observational data of the terrestrial hydrological variables,the understanding of how surface hydrological processes respond to climate change is still limited.In this study,the Community Land Model(CLM4.0)with high resolution atmospheric forcing data is selected to simulate the global surface hydrological quantities during the period 1948–2006and to investigate the spatial features of these quantities in response to climate change at the regional scales.The sensitivities of evaporation and runoff with respect to the dominant climate change factors(e.g.temperature and precipitation)derived from the concept of climate elasticity are introduced.Results show that evaporation has a declining trend with a rate of 0.7 mm per decade,while runoff shows a weak increasing trend of 0.15 mm per decade over the global land surface.Analyses of the hotspots in the hydrological cycle indicate that the spatial distributions for evaporation and runoff are similar over many areas in central Asia,Australia,and southern South America,but differ largely in high latitudes.It is also found that,the evaporation hotspots in arid regions are mainly associated with the changes in precipitation.Our sensitive analysis suggests that the hydrological quantities show a rather complicated spatial dependency of response of the water cycle to the different climate factors(temperature and precipitation).     

Effects of climate change on biodiversity

1 Rise of studies on climate change＇s effects on biodiversity
Until the 1980s, climate change and biodiversity were studied as two independent disciplines for more than a century. In 1992, the Ecological Society of America＇s annual report named climate change, biodiversity, and the sustainable ecological system as the three major global environmental issues of the twenty-first century [1].     

Changes in mean and extreme climates over China with a 2°C global warming

Based on a 153-year (1948-2100) transient simulation of East Asian climate performed by a high resolution regional climate model (RegCM3) under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A1B scenario, the potential future changes in mean and extreme climates over China in association with a global warming of 2℃ with respect to pre-industrial times are assessed in this study. Results show that annual temperature rises over the whole of China, with a greater magnitude of around 0.6℃ compared to the global mean increase, at the time of a 2℃ global warming. Large-scale surface warming gets stronger towards the high latitudes and on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, while it is similar in magnitude but somewhat different in spatial pattern between seasons. Annual precipitation increases by 5.2%, and seasonal precipitation increases by 4.2%-8.5% with respect to the 1986-2005 climatology. At the large scale, apart from in boreal winter when precipitation increases in northern China but decreases in southern China, annual and seasonal precipitation increases in western and southeastern China but decreases over the rest of the country. Nationwide extreme warm (cold) temperature events increase (decrease). With respect to the 1986-2005 climatology, the country-averaged annual extreme precipitation events R5d, SDII, R95T, and R10 increase by 5.1 mm, 0.28 mm d -1 , 6.6%, and 0.4 d respectively, and CDD decreases by 0.5 d. There is a large spatial variability in R10 and CDD changes.     

Climate change in China in the 21st century as simulated by a high resolution regional climate model

Climate change in the 21st century over China is simulated using the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3). The model is one-way nested within the global model CCSR/NIES/FRCGC MIROC3.2_hires (Center for Climate System Research/National Institute for Environmental Studies/Frontier Research Center for Global Change/Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate). A 150-year (1951-2100) transient simulation is conducted at 25 km grid spacing, under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC SRES) A1B scenario. Simulations of present climate conditions in China by RegCM3 are compared against observations to assess model performance. Results show that RegCM3 reproduces the observed spatial structure of surface air temperature and precipitation well. Changes in mean temperature and precipitation in December-January-February (DJF) and June-July-August (JJA) during the middle and end of the 21st century are analyzed. Significant future warming is simulated by RegCM3. This warming becomes greater with time, and increased warming is simulated at high latitude and high altitude (Tibetan Plateau) areas. In the middle of the 21st century in DJF, a general increase of precipitation is found in most areas, except over the Tibetan Plateau. Precipitation changes in JJA show an increase over northwest China and a decrease over the Tibetan Plateau. There is a mixture of positive and negative changes in eastern China. The change pattern at the end of the century is generally consistent with that in mid century, except in some small areas, and the magnitude of change is usually larger. In addition, the simulation is compared with a previous simulation of the RegCM3 driven by a different global model, to address uncertainties of the projected climate change in China.     

Simulation of historical and projected climate change in arid and semiarid areas by CMIP5 models

Based on Climatic Research Unit Time Series3.1 temperature and Global Precipitation Climatology Center full data reanalysis version 6 precipitation data,the abilities of climate models from the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project to simulate climate changes over arid and semiarid areas were assessed.Simulations of future climate changes under different representative concentration pathways(RCPs)were also examined.The key findings were that most of the models are able to capture the dominant features of the spatiotemporal changes in temperature,especially the geographic distribution,during the past 60 years,both globally as well as over arid and semiarid areas.In addition,the models can reproduce the observed warming trends,but with magnitudes generally less than the observations of around0.1–0.3°C/50a.Compared to temperature,the models perform worse in simulating the annual evolution of observed precipitation,underestimating both the variability and tendency,and there is a huge spread among the models in terms of their simulated precipitation results.The multimodel ensemble mean is overall superior to any individual model in reproducing the observed climate changes.In terms of future climate change,an ongoing warming projected by the multi-model ensemble over arid and semiarid areas can clearly be seen under different RCPs,especially under the high emissions scenario(RCP8.5),which is twice that of the moderate scenario(RCP4.5).Unlike the increasing temperature,precipitation changes vary across areas and are more significant under high-emission RCPs,with more precipitation over wet areas but less precipitation over dry areas.In particular,northern China is projected to be one of the typical areas experiencing significantly increased temperature and precipitation in the future.     

Sky islands of southwest China. I: an overview of phylogeographic patterns

Sky islands are high-elevation areas in continental mountain ranges,which are geographically isolated.We adopted this concept for the mountains in southwest China,which are among the most important biodiversity hot spots on earth.We reviewed the phylogeographic studies of this area and highlighted the sky-island features.We concluded that the genetic structures of species in these islands were shaped by complex topography,climate and habitats.The global climate change,such as Pleistocene climate fluctuations and periodic uplift of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau,also have important effects on biodiversity and geographic patterns,when species have responded idiosyncratically by changing their distributions or through adaptation.Future research needs in sky islands include multilocus data and comparative phylogeographic studies,integrating with the methodological advances in the other fields.Using these approaches,we can examine to what degree the geographic,climate and/or biological factors,shape strong geographic patterns,promote diversification/speciation and preserve species/genetic diversity.We hope this paper will inspire future work to uncover the mechanism that has generated the endemic biodiversity and to further resolve the most essential problem:How to protect the biodiversity with limited funding during the coming drastic global climate change.     

Characteristics of decadal-centennial-scale changes in East Asian summer monsoon circulation and precipitation during the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age and in the present day

Using meteorological observations, proxies of precipitation and temperature, and climate simulation outputs, we synthetically analyzed the regularities of decadal-centennial-scale changes in the summer thermal contrast between land and ocean and summer precipitation over the East Asian monsoon region during the past millennium; compared the basic characteristics of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) circulation and precipitation in the present day, the Little Ice Age (LIA) and the Medieval Warm Period (MWP); and explored their links with solar irradiance and global climate change. The results indicate that over the last 150 years, the EASM circulation and precipitation, indicated by the temperature contrast between the East Asian mainland and adjacent oceans, had a significant decadal perturbation and have been weaker during the period of rapid global warming over the past 50 years. On the centennial time scale, the EASM in the MWP was strongest over the past 1000 years. Over the past 1000 years, the EASM was weakest in 1450-1570. When the EASM circulation was weaker, the monsoon rain belt over eastern China was generally located more southward, with there being less precipitation in North China and more precipitation in the Yangtze River valley; therefore, there was an anomalous pattern of southern flood/northern drought. From the 1900s to 1920s, precipitation had a pat- tern opposite to that of the southern flood/northern drought, with there being less precipitation in the Yangtze River valley and more precipitation in North China. Compared with the case for the MWP, there was a longer-time-scale southern flood/northern drought phenomenon in 1400-1600. Moreover, the EASM circulation and precipitation did not synchronously vary with the trend of global temperature. During the last 150 years, although the annual mean surface temperature around the world and in China has increased, the EASM circulation and precipitation did not have strengthening or weakening trends. Over the past 1000 years, the weakest EASM occurred ahead of the lowest Northern Hemispheric temperature and corresponded to the weakest solar irradiance.     

Glacier variations and climate warming and drying in the central Himalayas

Repeat measurements of glacier terminus positions show that glaciers in the central Himalayas have been in a continuous retreat situation in the past decades. The average retreat rate is 5.5-8.7 m/a in Mt. Qomolangma(Everest) since the 1960s and 6.4 m/a in Mt. Xixiabangma since the 1980s. In recent years, the retreat rate is increasing.Ice core studies revealed that the accumulation rate of glaciers has a fluctuating decrease trend in the last century with a rapid decrease in the 1960s and a relatively steady low value afterwards. Meteorological station record indicates that the annual mean temperature has a slow increase trend but summer temperature had a larger increase in the past 30 a. All these suggest that the glacier retreat results from precipitation decrease in combination with temperature increase,and hence glacier shrinkage in this region will speed up if the climatic warming and drying continues.     

Accumulation and temperature changes in Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica in the past 250 years

A 50 m firn core drilled in Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica, during the 1996/1997 Chinese First Antarctic Inland Expedition, has been measured for б18O and major ions. Based on these data, the features of the climate change in the investigated region in the past 250 years have first been studied. In the past 250 years, the change trend of climate in this region can be divided into two periods by the year 1860. Both the temperature and accumulation rate display increasing trend before 1860, while after 1860, the decreasing trend of the temperature is obvious but the change of the accumulation rate is not clear. Although both the temperature and the accumulation rate are increasing in the past 50 years, they are not the highest values in the past 250 years. So it is clear that the climate change in this region during this period does not reflect recent global wanning.     

Changes in plant community diversity and aboveground biomass along with altitude within an alpine meadow on the Three-River source region

The grassland is an important component of terrestrial ecosystems and plays a significant role in biodiversity and ecosystem functions.In the present study,the changes of plant species diversity and aboveground biomass productivity were examined along with the altitude in natural alpine grassland in the source region of three rivers on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.Eleven experimental locations were selected with altitudes ranging from 3862 to 4450 m above sea level(a.s.l.).The results indicated that Kobresia pygmaea meadow,Kobresia humilis meadow and Salix cupularis shrub meadow had higher indices of diversity and aboveground biomass.The distribution of species diversity,richness and aboveground biomass showed similarly unimodal patterns across the altitude gradient with the highest indices appeared at mid-altitudes locations.The changing trend of species diversity,richness and evenness also showed significant unimodal patterns with total aboveground biomass,and the highest species diversity occurred at intermediate level of productivities.This research would provide a valuable reference for the protection of grassland biodiversity and maintaining of the grazing ecosystem function in the source region of the Three Rivers.     

Ensemble projection of 1―3℃ warming in China

Studies on the influences of climate change on biogeochemical cycles and on the key vulnerabilities and the risk from climate change suggest that annual surface temperature rise of 1 ℃, 2℃ and 3℃ above the present level would lead to changes in extreme weather and climate events, food production, fresh water resources, biodiversity, human mortality, etc. Here two sets of simulations as performed with seventeen atmosphere-ocean general circulation models （AOGCMs） for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change （IPCC AR4）, i.e. the model outputs from the 20th Century Climate in Coupled Models （20C3M） and from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios （SRES） emission scenarios B1, A1B and A2, are used to analyze spatial and temporal characteristics of the above values in China over the 21st century. The results indicate that the rate of warming varies from region to region. The above values are reached much later （earlier） when emission amount is lower （higher）, and spread of the time when the lower （higher） value is exceeded is narrower （wider） among the three scenarios. As far as the spatial pattern is concerned, the above values are crossed much earlier in northern China and the Tibetan Plateau with respect to the Yangtze-Huaihe River Valley and South China.     

Climate change threats to protected plants of China: an evaluation based on species distribution modeling

Climate change poses major new challenges to biodiversity conservation. Distribution ranges of species have been proven to be affected by climate anomalies. Detecting the extent of protected species response to climate change can help formulate flexible conservation strategies to overcome the changing climate. Using species distribution modeling and high resolution climate data, we simulated current distribution patterns of 233 protected plants in China. Those patterns were then projected into future suitable habitats for each species under nine climate change scenarios, with no migration or full migration hypotheses. Under the most extreme climate change scenario （CGCM-B2a）, we evaluated species extinction risks. Sixteen percent of protected plants are expected to lose more than 30 % of their current ranges. By calculating areal shifts, hotspots for emigrants, immigrants, and persistent species were identified under climate change. Flexible conservation strategies were addressed for those regions. Those strategies strongly depend on the migration types of species and sensitivity of the hotspots to changing climate. In hotspots for emigrants, the main conservation strategy is ex situ protection; protected species from these regions should be stored in seed banks or botanical gardens. For hotspots of immigrants, enough space should be maintained for new species, and some measures are necessary to assist dispersal. For hotspots of persistent species, more natural reserves are needed. We highlight related fields that can help conserve protected species in the future, such as conserving the soil seed bank and understanding of the effects of migration ability and interactions between protected species.     

Millennial temperature reconstruction based on tree-ring widths of Qilian juniper from Wulan, Qinghai Province, China

The climate of the past 1000 years is an important context for evaluating the recent climate warming. However, there are few 1000-year-long climate reconstructions with annual resolution in the Qinghal-Tibet Plateau. In this paper, a dendroclimatic analysis was conducted for the radial growth of Qilian juniper from the upper forest limit in Wulan, Qinghai Province. The results of correlation analysis between the tree-ring widths and the climate variables indicate that the growth of junipers at the upper forest limit is mainly limited by low temperatures of September, November and February of the pregrowth season, and July of the current growth season. There is no significant correlation between the tree-ring widths and precipitation. A mean temperature from the previous year＇s September to the current year＇s April was reconstructed for the Wulan area since A.D. 1000. The reconstruction can explain 40.8% of the instrumental variance in the calibration period （1856-2002）. The reconstruction shows that the 20th century is the warmest 100 years, and the 1990s is the warmest decade during the past 1000 years, while the coldest 100 years and decade occur at 1600-1699 and 1642-1651, respectively. The variations are verified well by the temperature reconstruction of the middle Qilian Mountain （QL） and the total organic carbon （TOC） in the Qinghai Lake sediments. The comparison of our reconstruction with the annual temperature reconstruction of extra-tropical Northern Hemisphere suggests that the climate of Wulan during the Medieval Warm Period is of obvious regional specialty, but there was a good response to the climate of hemispheric scales during the recent 400 years.     

The climatic suitability for maize cultivation in China

To provide scientific support for planning maize production and designing countermeasures against the effects of climate change on the national maize crop, we analyzed the climatic suitability for cultivating maize across China. These analyses were based on annual climate indices at the Chinese national level; these indices influence the geographical distribution of maize cultivation. The annual climate indices, together with geographical information on the current cultivation sites of maize, the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model, and the ArcGIS spatial analysis technique were used to analyze and predict maize distribution. The results show that the MaxEnt model can be used to study the climatic suitability for maize cultivation. The eight key climatic factors affecting maize cultivation areas were the frost-free period, annual average temperature, ≥0°C accumulated temperature, ≥10°C accumulated temperature continuous days, ≥10°C accumulated temperature, annual precipitation, warmest month average temperature, and humidity index. We classified climatic zones in terms of their suitability for maize cultivation, based on the existence probability determined using the MaxEnt model. Furthermore, climatic thresholds for a potential maize cultivation zone were determined based on the relationship between the dominant climatic factors and the potential maize cultivation area. The results indicated that the importance and thresholds of main climate controls differ for different maize species and maturities, and their specific climatic suitability should be studied further to identify the best cultivation zones. The MaxEnt model is a useful tool to study climatic suitability for maize cultivation.     

The Impact of Climate Warming on Permafrost and Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Global wanning is an inarguable fact. Permafrost is experiencing a change due to climate warming in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, such as the decreasing of permafrost table, the rising of permafrost temperature, etc. On the basis of analysing the permafrost change under the climate change and engineering action, the thermal regime and spatial distribution of permafrost are predicted for air temperature rising 1℃ and 2.6℃ after 50 years in this paper. The results show that climate change results in the larger change for the thermal regime and spatial distribution of permafrost. Permafrost change will produce the great effect on the Qinghai- Tibet Railway engineering, not only resulting in the decreasing of permafrost table beneath the roadbed, but also resulting in thawing settlement due to the thawing of ground ice near permafrost table. The idea of cooling roadbed and actively protecting permafrost for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway engineering could adjust and control the permafrost thermal state, some better methods are provided to ensure the engineering stability in the areas of warm permafrost and high ice content.     

Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spore communities and its relations to plants under increased temperature and precipitation in a natural grassland

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF)form mutualisms with most plant species,and therefore,understanding how AMF communities will respond to climate change is essential for predictions of changes in plant communities.To evaluate the impact of global climate change on AMFs and plant-AMF interactions in a natural grassland in Inner Mongolia,both artificial warming and watering treatments were assigned to experimental plots.Our results indicate that(1)warming and precipitation significantly affected the relative spore abundance of abundant sporulating AMF species;(2)the relative abundance of weak sporulating AMF species and AMF diversity decreased under experimental warming;(3)evidence was found that the composition of the AMF community in a given year might be correlated with plant community composition in the following year;and(4)grasses and forbs showing different preferences to Claroideoglomus etunicatum or Ambispora gerdemannii dominated plots.Our results imply that climate change appears to induce changes in AMF assemblages with knock-on effects on grassland plant communities.AMF communities may play a much more important role than we have thought in the responses of ecosystem to global climate changes.     

Changes of climate extremes of temperature and precipitation in summer in eastern China associated with changes in atmospheric circulation in East Asia during 1960–2008

Climate extremes and changes in eastern China are closely related to variations of the East Asian summer monsoon and corresponding atmospheric circulations.The relationship between frequencies of temperature and precipitation extremes in China during the last half century is investigated using Singular Value Decomposition analysis.During 1980-1996,there was a typical pattern with fewer hot days and more precipitation extremes in the northern part of eastern China,and more hot days and fewer precipitation extremes in the southern part.This geographic pattern tended to reverse after 1997,with fewer hot days and more extreme precipitation days south of the Yangtze River and vice versa to the north.Differences in atmospheric circulation between the former and latter periods are presented.We conclude that a mid-level anomalous high/low,upper-level anomalous easterlies/westerlies over the north/south of eastern China,a weakened East Asian summer monsoon and associated upper-tropospheric center of cooling(30°N,110°E) are all favorable for the changes in frequencies of temperature and precipitation extremes.     

Climate change and hydrologic process response in the Tarim River Basin over the past 50 years

Climate change and hydrologic process response in the Tarim River Basin over the past 50 years are the focus of more and more researchers＇ attention. In this paper, both temperature and precipitation time series were found to present a monotonic increasing trend using nonparametric tests. Noticeably, a significant step change in both temperature and precipitation time series occurred in 1986. By contrasting the trends of natural water process in headstream and mainstream, we found that it was anthropogenic activities not climate change that caused the river dried up and vegetation degenerated in the lower reaches of Tarim River. The results of gray correlation analysis show that the runoff of higher latitude distributing river is more closely associated with winter snow stocking, while that of lower latitude is more closely related to summer temperature. Runoff in the headstream is more sensitive to precipitation, while that in the mainstream is more sensitive to evaporation. The strong evaporation caused by increasing temperature weakened runoff to some extent in spite of the fact that precipitation increased over the past 50 years.     

A model for assessing effects of climate change on runoff in China

A model is established for assessing the effects of climate change on runoff in China based on the land surface parameterization scheme variable infiltration capacity (VIC). The entire area of China is represented by 2604 cells with a resolution of 60 km×60 km for each cell. Forcing data, soil and vegetation parameters needed by the VIC model for the entire area of China are prepared. Daily forcing data, which are obtained from 740 stations between 1980 and 1990, are interpolated to the 60 km×60 km grid system. The VIC model is run on every grid cell over the whole China, and a routing scheme is run offline with daily input of surface runoff and drainage from the VIC to get hydrograph at basin outlets. The spatial patterns of simulated runoff and mean annual precipitation are consistent very well. The results of monthly streamflow simulations over the Huaihe and Weihe River basins indicate that there is a good agreement between the observed and simulated values, and also initially indicate the rationality and feasibility of the evaluation model.     

Balance between facilitation and competition determines spatial patterns in a plant population

A considerable challenge in plant ecology is to understand how interactions,such as competition or facilitation,shape the spatial distribution of plants.The‘‘stress gradient hypothesis’’predicts that facilitation and competition will vary inversely across gradients of abiotic stress or consumer pressure.Surprisingly,few previous studies have explored how the balance between facilitation and competition affects spatial patterns along gradients of stress in a plant population based on field experiments.In order to investigate the effects of consumer pressure,facilitation,and competition on the spatial pattern of plant populations,we conducted a restoration succession series field experiment in the Inner Mongolian steppe in which sample sites of graded consumer pressure,specifically grazing stress,were established.We chose to examine the spatial patterns of Leymus chinensis,a dominant species in our experimental site.In order to test the‘‘stress gradient hypothesis,’’we applied the univariate O-ring statistic to analyze local neighborhood density at different spatial scales.We used the pair-correlation function to detect the characteristics of point patterns using complete spatial randomness,the Poisson cluster process,and the nested double-cluster process.We found that the local densities of L.chinensis were higher under high stress than lower stress environments.This demonstrated the‘‘stress gradient hypothesis’’in that facilitation and competition varied inversely across gradients of consumer pressure.However,we found nodifferences in the spatial patterns of L.chinensis based on complete spatial randomness when interactions shifted from facilitation to competition along gradients of consumer pressure.Furthermore,we detected the characteristics of point patterns using the Poisson cluster and nested doublecluster processes.The results showed the spatial patterns of L.chinensis to fit well with the nested double-cluster model under highly stressful conditions,while in lower stress environments they were best approximated by the Thomas process.Our results illustrate that a shift in interactions from facilitation to competition along gradients of consumer pressure can shape spatial patterns and that a combination of the Poisson cluster process and nested doublecluster process can detect spatial pattern characteristics which cannot be detected by complete spatial randomness.