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Climate trends during maize growing period and their impacts on spring maize yield in North China was investigated. This dataset contains: 1) information of stations in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 2) Trend in temperature and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 3) Trend in radiation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 4) Trend in precipitation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China. Climate trends during maize growing period and their impacts on spring maize yield in North China was investigated. This dataset contains: 1) information of stations in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 2) Trend in temperature and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 3) Trend in radiation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 4) Trend in precipitation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China.

Aim: Climate warming and biodiversity loss both alter plant productivity, yet we lack an understanding of how biodiversity regulates the responses of ecosystems to warming. In this study, we examine how plant diversity regulates the responses of grassland productivity to experimental warming using meta-analytic techniques. Location: Global Major taxa studied: Grassland ecosystems Methods: Our meta-analysis is based on warming responses of 40 different plant communities obtained from 20 independent studies on grasslands across five continents. Results: Our results show that plant diversity and its responses to warming were the most important factors regulating the warming effects on plant productivity, among all the factors considered (plant diversity, climate and experimental settings). Specifically, warming increased plant productivity when plant diversity (indicated by effective number of species) in grasslands was lesser than 10, whereas warming decreased plant productivity when plant diversity was greater than 10. Moreover, the structural equation modelling showed that the magnitude of warming enhanced plant productivity by increasing the performance of dominant plant species in grasslands of diversity lesser than 10. The negative effects of warming on productivity in grasslands with plant diversity greater than 10 were partly explained by diversity-induced decline in plant dominance. Main Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the positive or negative effect of warming on grassland productivity depends on how biodiverse a grassland is. This could mainly owe to differences in how warming may affect plant dominance and subsequent shifts in interspecific interactions in grasslands of different plant diversity levels.

Changes in late rice phenology during 1981–2009 were investigated using observed phenological data from agro-meteorological stations across China. This dataset contains 1) details of late rice agrometeorological experiment stations; 2) mean date of late rice phenology date and trend in phenology date during the period of 1981–2009; 3) trends in length of late rice growing period during the period of 1981-2009. Changes in late rice phenology during 1981–2009 were investigated using observed phenological data from agro-meteorological stations across China. This dataset contains 1) details of late rice agrometeorological experiment stations; 2) mean date of late rice phenology date and trend in phenology date during the period of 1981–2009; 3) trends in length of late rice growing period during the period of 1981-2009.

Widespread shrub encroachment is profoundly impacting the structures and functions of global drylands, and precipitation change is assumed to be one of the most critical factors affecting this phenomenon. However, there is little evidence to show how precipitation changes will affect the process. In this study, we conducted a 6-year precipitation manipulation experiment (-30%, ambient, +30%, and +50%) to investigate the effects of precipitation changes on the growth of shrubs and herbaceous plants in a shrub-encroached grassland in Inner Mongolia. We found that the increasing precipitation significantly increased the mean height, coverage, and aboveground biomass of herbaceous species, while the growth of shrub species did not exhibit a significant response to precipitation changes. With increasing precipitation, the relative coverage of shrubs decreased, while that of herbs increased. The native dominant herbaceous plant (Leymus chinensis) with more sensitive maximum photosynthetic rate to the precipitation change, showed higher photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency and water use efficiency than those of the encroached shrub species (Caragana microphylla) at high soil moisture contents, reflecting that the ecophysiological characteristics of L. chinensis might provide it a competitive advantage under increased precipitation. Our findings suggest that increasing precipitation may slow down shrub encroachment by facilitating herbaceous growth in Mongolian grasslands, and consequently affect the forage value and carbon budget in these ecosystems. 

A new environmental ban has forced the restructure of open dumps in China since 1 July 2011. A technical process was established in this study that is feasible for the upgrade of open dumps through restructuring. The feasibility of restructuring and the benefit of greenhouse gas emission reductions were assessed according to field surveys of five landfills and four dumps in Nanjing. The results showed that the daily processing capacities of the existing landfills have been unable to meet the growth of municipal solid waste (MSW), making restructuring of the landfills imperative. According to an assessment of the technical process, only four sites in Nanjing were suitable for upgrading. Restructuring the Jiaozishan landfill effectively reduced the leachate generation rate by 5.84% under its scale when expanded by 60.7% in 2015. CO2 emissions were reduced by approximately 55,000–86,000 tons per year, in which biogas power generation replaced fossil fuels Fossil fuels accounted for the largest proportion, up to 45,000–60,000 tons. Photovoltaic power generation on the overlying land has not only reduced CO2 emissions to 26,000–30,000 tons per year but has also brought in continuing income from the sale of electricity. The funds are essential for developing countries such as China, which lack long-term financial support for landfill management after closure.

In this study, we investigated the influence of overall financial development and its components on energy consumption using the panel data of 120 countries and the generalized method of moments (GMM). By dividing the sample into developed and developing countries, we further examined the national differences of the impact of financial development on energy consumption. The empirical results indicate that the overall financial development significantly positively impacts energy consumption from a worldwide perspective, and its two components (financial institution and the financial market) have the same effect. The analysis of national differences indicates that the financial development also positively impacts energy consumption in developing countries but with no obvious effect in developed countries. The results also suggest that financial development cannot be used to restrain the increase in energy consumption from the global perspective, and policymakers in developing countries must balance the relationship between the development of the financial sector and energy consumption.

Abstract Transportation de-carbonization is a complex problem involving the economy, population, technology and environment. Implementing the pathway simulation based on systematic methods will help to optimize the transportation sustainability plan. This study’s key motivation is that earlier research ignored the relationship between driving factors and the transmission process. To quantitatively identify the path and process of emission reduction, a hybrid system dynamics STIRPAT-SD model is proposed to explore the transportation optimization’s de-carbonization ability. This study fully considers the composition of elements and subsystems based on the STIRPAT theoretical model and visually shows the system’s feedback relationship. Transportation structural and technical optimization scenarios are set to identify the threshold reduction paths. It is found these optimization strategies have significant de-carbonization effects. And transportation structure policy has the highest de-carbonization efficiency, the emission intensity decreased by 9.1% under the TSS2 scenario (Transportation structure scenario). This study proposes a novelty model combining dynamic simulating processes with a significantly theoretical model to improve simulation and factor composition accuracy. And the joint scenario setting identifies the most effective de-carbonization pathway and clarifies the threshold of all possible pathways. Research findings can effectively track, test, predict the achievement of policy goals, and provide policy optimization references for the sustainable development related to the transportation system in practice.

As a relatively mature technology, biomass molded fuel (BMF) is widely used in distributed and centralized heating in China and has received considerable government attention. Although many BFM incentive policies have been developed, decreased domestic traditional fuel prices in China have caused BMF to lose its economic viability and new policy recommendations are needed to stimulate this industry. The present study built a regionalized net present value (NPV) model based on real production process simulation to test the impacts of each policy factor. The calculations showed that BMF production costs vary remarkably between regions, with the cost of agricultural briquette fuel (ABF) ranging from 86 US dollar per metric ton (USD/t) to 110 (USD/t), while that of woody pellet fuel (WPF) varies from 122 USD/t to 154 USD/t. The largest part of BMF’s cost composition is feedstock, which accounts for up 50%–60% of the total; accordingly a feedstock subsidy is the most effective policy factor, but in consideration of policy implementation, it would be better to use a production subsidy. For ABF, the optimal product subsidy varies from 26 USD/t to 57 USD/t among different regions of China, while for WPF, the range is 36 USD/t to 75 USD/t. Based on the data, a regional BMF development strategy is also proposed in this study.