Effect of the conversion of grassland to spring wheat field on the CO2 emission characteristics in Inner Mongolia, China

Chinese grasslands have undergone great changes in land use in recent decades. Approximately 18.2% of the present arable land in China originated from the cultivation of grassland, but its impact on the carbon cycle has not been fully understood. This study wasconducted insitu for3yearstoassessthecomprehensive effects ofcultivationof temperatesteppe onsoilorganiccarbon(SOC) and soil respiration rates as well as ecosystem respiration. As compared with those in the Stipa baicalensis steppe, the SOC concentrations at depths of 0‐10 and 10‐20 cm in the spring wheat field were found to have decreased by 38.3 and 17.4% respectively from 29.5 and 21.9 g kg � 1 to 18.2 and 18.1 g kg � 1 after a cul…

Precipitation Pulses and Soil CO2 Emission in Desert Shrubland of Artemisia ordosica on the Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, China

National Natural Science Foundation of China [40730105, 40501072, 40673067]; National Key Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China [2002CB412503]; Chinese Academy of Sciences [KZCX2-YW-149]

The Visual Quality of Urban Park Scenes of Kowloon Park, Hong Kong: Likeability, Affective Appraisal, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

The urban park is a place where urbanites can escape from the stresses of everyday life. Using a set of fifteen photographs as visual stimuli, we attempted to identify those scenes that are liked by visitors to Kowloon Park, Hong Kong. The visual quality of an urban park scene is measured by its likeability, referring to the probability that the scene will evoke a strong and positive response among the users of the park. Because Hong Kong is an international metropolis, the respondent sample included both Hong Kong residents and tourists. The principal component analysis revealed the three underlying ‘dimensions’ of the appraisal aspects of the data: the ‘affective’ component, the ‘managem…

Recent climate change affecting rainstorm occurrences? A case study in East China

The paper aims to investigate the occurrences of rainstorms and their relationship with the climate change scenario. The study period under investigation refers to the period of greatest recent warming between 1976–2000 whereas the study area covers China east of 105 E longitude. This region is commonly considered to be controlled by the monsoon type of climate over East Asia. <br><br> Positive (increasing) trends of rainstorm occurrences, both in annual and summer respects, have been shown for subtropical China whereas a non-uniform picture is associated with temperate China. The increase of rainstorms in subtropical China corresponds with an increasing trend of precipitation. …

Studies on the impact of winter climate on rubber and wheat cultivation in the mountains of southern China, applying a fuzzy cluster analysis

Data from climatic stations in China, located south of 30° N and > 400 m above sea-level, were analysed in order to study the relationship with winter climate, on the one hand, and with rubber and winter wheat cultivation, on the other. Three relevant agroclimatic parameters were investigated for January, namely mean temperature, precipitation total and sunshine duration. By applying a fuzzy cluster analysis, three agroclimatic regions were found in winter; the boundaries coincide with the macro-scale topography of southern China. In one case the boundary even corresponds with the position of the Kunming quasi-stationary front. Winter climate in the three agroclimatic regions was found to s…

Climatological characteristics of the tropics in China: climate classification schemes between German scientists and Huang Bingwei

Reviewing some important German scientists who have developed climatic regionalization schemes either on a global or Chinese scale, their various definitions of the tropical climate characteristics in China are discussed and compared with Huang Bingwei’s climate classification scheme and the identification of the tropical climate therein. It can be seen that, due to different methodological approaches of the climatic regionalization schemes, the definitions of the tropics vary and hence also their spatial distribution in China. However, it is found that the tropical climate type occupies only a peripheral part of southern China, though it firmly represents a distinctive type of climate that…

The Tropical Forest Ecosystem: Reviewing the Effects of Deforestation on Climate and Environment

The rapid decline of tropical rain forests in the 1980s, particularly caused by man-made forest clearance for farmland and timber exploitation, is accompanied by adverse climatic and environmental effects. In particular, rainfall and temperature conditions are adversely changed, with lower rainfall and high-er temperatures. Through deforestation, the atmospheric emissions of CO2 are increased and thus the global greenhouse effect is being strengthened. Tropical deforestation also increases soil erosion, depending upon the type of ecosystem. It also can be seen that floods more often occur in cases of deforestation. An international “action programme” for the protection and preservation of t…

IGU commission on climatology

The orthogonal structure of Monsoon rainfall variation over Sri Lanka

The spatial organization of Monsoon rainfall over Sri Lanka is examined using Orthogonal Factor Analysis (OFA) on long-term mean monthly rainfall data. Three types of orthogonal structure of Monsoon regime in Sri Lanka have been identified. Interpretation of orthogonal factor scores revealed that a large amount of rainfall occurs from March to October in the southwestern parts of Sri Lanka, from December to February in the eastern parts, and in November in the northern and mid-western parts which are all represented by high positive factor scores. Orthogonal factor scores for the first three factors account for 93.6% of the total variance of mean monthly rainfall and clearly indicate that t…

Conceptualising State-Controlled Resort Islands for an Environment-Friendly Development of Tourism: The Maldivian Experience

The Maldives host a sophisticated and competitive international tourist industry which has replaced fishing as the dominant economic activity. With their rich tropical reef ecosystems and the abundant biodiversity of their marine environment, a total of 86 uninhabited islands had been converted into Resort Islands by the end of 2000. Resort Islands are equipped with comprehensive facilities for accommodation, food, recreation and leisure. They are also strictly reserved for foreign tourists and guarantee complete privacy. This gives the benefit of averting conflicts of acculturation with local islanders. In the arena of impacts on the physical environment, however, the consumptive leisure l…

Recent temporal and spatial temperature changes in Egypt

In order to detect and to estimate trends of temperature change in Egypt, trend analyses applying the least-squares method and the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test for trends were carried out at six stations for the period 1941–2000 (60 years), and at nine stations for the period 1971–2000 (30 years). According to the trend computations for the period 1941–2000, variable temperature trends over time and space have been observed. Decreasing trends of the mean annual temperature were observed in northern Egypt and (weakly) increasing trends in southern Egypt. Seasonally, positive trends prevailed in summer compared with negative trends in winter. For the recent period, 1971–2000, positive tre…

Tourism resources and their development in Maldive Islands

Maldive Islands are characterized by a unique coral nature and thus they posses unique tourism resources though in a one-sided way, namely in the submarine and littoral environment of the islands, lagoons and reefs, associated with the year-round tropical climate. Therefore, not only divers and snorklers enjoy the profuse underwater resources, but also ‘beach tourists’ are attracted by the nature of the beaches and the climatic conditions as well. This environment really guarantees relaxation and recreation. Tourism in Maldives which was introduced in 1972 only, has successfully developed so far. Proof is given by the rapidly growing number of tourists and tourist ‘resorts’ (islands) over t…

Maldivian Tourist Resorts and their Environmental Impact

In the past two decades, the Maldivians have built up a flourishing tourist industry. Tourist resorts have been established on hitherto uninhabited small islands and by 1990 the number of tourists has increased to nearly 200 000. The Maldivian tourist resorts represent a special type of tropical beach resorts catering only to the tourists’ needs for accommodation, board, leisure and recreation. They are distinctly separate from the islands inhabited by the Maldivians and intercultural communication does not take place. These resorts are in effect ‘tourist enclaves’. Holiday facilities in the resorts are clearly geared to the coastal environment - the beach, lagoon and reef. The impact of to…

Analysis of Inter-Station Daily Rainfall Correlation During the Southwest Monsoon in the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka

Daily rainfall data have been analysed for 11 stations in the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka for the Southwest Monsoon season (May to September, 1971–1985) to yield the spatial organization of daily rainfal...

Monsoon and land use in Sri Lanka

Agricultural land use in Sri Lanka roughly shows a division of the island in two major parts, according to the climatic division into the Wet and Dry Zones. Therefore, it is the ultimate, most important question for agricultural land use in Sri Lanka whether the seasonal occurrence of a distinct dry season, which is characteristic of the Dry Zone, is also the most delimiting factor for land use or not. It seems true, in fact, that the long SW monsoonal dry season in the Dry Zone is the major fact for a large-scale division of Sri Lanka according to the crops under cultivation and the cropping systems. Paddy (rice) and tea are the leading crops in the Dry as well as Wet Zone. They are at the…

An Analysis of Regional and Intra-annual Precipitation Variability over Iran using Multivariate Statistical Methods

The temporal and spatial precipitation regime of Iran was analysed using multivariate analyses of monthly mean precipitation records for 71 stations. A Principal Component Analysis was applied to the correlation matrix in order to describe the intra-annual variations of precipitation. The Principal Component scores were mapped to visualize the spatial structure of the three derived precipitation regimes. By applying an agglomerative clustering (WARD) of the three Principal Component scores, five homogeneous spatial clusters, representing five precipitation regions, were developed. The intra-annual types of precipitation distribution, shown by the five clusters, are described and discussed.

Recent climate change in Japan ? spatial and temporal characteristics of trends of temperature

Abstract. In this paper temperature series of Japan were statistically analysed in order to answer the question whether recent climate change can be proved for Japan; the results were compared and discussed with the global trends. The observations in Japan started for some stations in the 1870s, 59 stations are available since 1901, 136 stations since 1959. Modern statistical methods were applied, such as: Gaussian binominal low-pass filter (30 yr), trend analysis (linear regression model) including the trend-to-noise-ratio as measure of significance and the non-parametric, non-linear trend test according to MANN (MANN's Q). According to the results of the analyses, climate change in Japan …

A statistical approach towards a regionalization of daily rainfall in Sri Lanka

Regionalization of daily rainfall in Sri Lanka was examined using orthogonal factor analysis (OFA) based on daily rainfall data of 42 stations for a 15-year period (1971–1985). The number of potential rainy days was computed from the original data matrix and subjected to S-mode OFA. The first 10 orthogonal factors were shown as highly significant, explaining 65.1 per cent of the total variance of the whole data matrix, where the level of eigenvalues represented was > 1.0. Noticeably, the 10 orthogonal factors clearly revealed the different homogeneous daily rainfall regions in Sri Lanka (labelled as A to J), according to the orthogonal factor high loadings matrix. Delimitation of the daily …