Description
Book SynopsisThe continued aridity trend occurring in many regions worldwide is a manifestation of the response of the earth system to global change. It hinders severely the sustainable development of these regions. Northern China is one of the largest and most affected regions in the world. This book documents the climate change in its arid and semi-arid areas on decadal to geological time scales based on analyses of various data sources. These analyses improved our understanding of the potential mechanisms driving the aridity trend, particularly in the second half of the 20th century. Based on these analyses and a systematic assessment of the impact of the aridity trend on the ecological and hydrological processes in northern China, measures of human adaptation to the aridity trend for socio-economic developments are proposed.World Scientific Series on Asia-Pacific Weather and Climate is indexed in SCOPUS.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Plio-Pleistocene Changes in the Arid Area of Northern China on Geological Timescales; Evidence of Aridity Trend in Northern China on Decadal Scales; Global Patterns of Aridity Trends and Time Regimes in Transition; Hadley Cell Widening in Warming Climate and Implication to Expansion of World Dry Lands; Tropical Large-Scale Atmospheric Interaction in Association with Subtropical Aridity Trend; Land-atmospheric Interaction in Semi-Arid Regions; Impacts of Land Use/Cover Change on Aridity Trend; Dust Aerosol and Aridity Trend; Ecosystem Process in Semi-Arid Region; Hydrological Processes in Semi-Arid Region; Impact of the Aridity Trend on Socio-Economic Development and Human Adaptation; Summary Remarks;
