Chinese temperate grasslands play an important role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Based on the parameterization and validation of Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM, Version 5.0), we analyzed the carbon budgets of Chinese temperate grasslands and their responses to historical atmospheric CO2 concentration and climate variability during 1951–2007. The results indicated that Chinese temperate gr...

This study examines the pattern transition of dust events identified based on RGB images from Himawari-8 satellite, along with associated key circulations and dynamic features, during spring 2016-2020. The are ordered onto a 4 × 3 topological map according to spatial similarity distribution using self-organizing maps. In this map, exhibits mainly an eastward displacement or amplification Taklim...

We report on MAX-DOAS observations of NO2 over an oasis–ecotone–desert ecosystem in NW China. There, local ambient NO2 concentrations originate from enhanced biogenic NO emission of intensively managed soils. Our target oasis “Milan” is located at the southern edge of the Taklimakan desert, very remote and well isolated from other potential anthropogenic and biogenic NOx sources. Four observati...

Yang, X. ([email protected]), Huang, Z. (corresponding author, [email protected] ), Venable, D.L. (corresponding author, [email protected]), Wang, L. ([email protected]), Zhang, K. ([email protected]), Baskin, J.M. ([email protected]), Baskin, C.C. ([email protected]), Cornelissen, J.H.C ([email protected]) State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environment...

The Taklimakan Desert, also known as the “Sea of Death”, is largest desert in China and world’s second remote desert. road crossing Desert longest world has been center Silk Road since ancient times. Based on field observation data (November 2013 to May 2014) collected from Tazhong Xiaotang stations, we studied interannual diurnal variations soil temperature, moisture content, surface heat flux...

The Ordos Basin of China encompasses the Mu Us Desert in the northwest and the Chinese Loess Plateau to the south and east. The boundary between the mostly internally drained Mu Us Desert and fluvially incised Loess Plateau is an erosional escarpment, up to 400 m in relief, composed of Quaternary loess. Linear ridges, with lengths of ~102–103 m, are formed in Cretaceous–Quaternary strata throug...

We first measured the δ(13)C and δ(15)N values of root holoparasite Cynomorium songaricum and its hosts from 19 sites across four provinces in northwest China, in an attempt to investigate their nutritional relationship at the Tibetan plateau and the surrounding Gobi desert. Our study showed that the δ(13)C of C. songaricum closely mirrored the values of its hosts, Nitraria tangutorum and N. si...

Procapra przewalskii (Büchner, 1891), commonly called Przewalski’s gazelle, is polytypic with 1 of the 2 subspecies (P. p. diversicornis) likely extinct. The species now occurs only in the Qinghai Lake region in northeastern Qinghai Province, western China, and predominately inhabits semiarid grassland steppe, stable sand dunes, and the desert–shrub ecotone between them. Numbers and distributio...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS China is one of the countries most severely affected by desertification. Haloxylon ammodendron (Amaranthaceae) is an ecologically important component of the desert ecosystem and is one of the main tree species used for restoration, yet we know little about its genetic structure. METHODS Genetic variation within and between nine populations of H. ammodendron from two region...