Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.1
2.9
Journals
Atmosphere
Special Issues
Climate Change and Regional Sustainability in Arid Lands
share announcement

Climate Change and Regional Sustainability in Arid Lands

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosphere/Hydrosphere/Land–Atmosphere Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2024 | Viewed by 2442

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yang Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Interests: climate change; eco-hydrological modeling; evapotranspiration; drought; land degradation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Lei Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Interests: abiotic stress tolerance; seed ecology; phytohormone signaling; seed heteromorphism; halophytles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Cun Chang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Interests: LUCC; ecological remote sensing monitoring; sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impacts of climate change have been widely recognized around the world, especially in arid environments. The ecosystems of arid/semi-arid areas are often vulnerable due to the extreme climatic situation and water shortage.

Arid lands are characterized by scarce water resources, a delicate ecological balance, and vulnerability to climate change impacts. This Special Issue aims to explore the various aspects of climate change and its implications for regional sustainability in arid lands worldwide. We welcome contributions that investigate the interactions between the atmosphere and the land surface, focusing on topics such as water availability, energy cycles, land cover change, and adaptation strategies.

Potential research areas for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Regional climate modeling and projections for arid areas;
  • Impacts of climate variability and change on water resources in arid regions;
  • Land–atmosphere interactions and feedback mechanisms in arid ecosystems;
  • Sustainable land management techniques and their role in climate resilience;
  • Climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for arid regions;
  • Socio-economic implications and policy interventions for sustainable development in arid lands.

We invite researchers and experts in the field to submit their original research articles, reviews, or conceptual papers to contribute to this Special Issue. Manuscripts should adhere to the journal’s guidelines and will undergo a rigorous peer-review process.

This Special Issue aims to bring together the latest research and advancements in the understanding of the complex dynamics of arid regions, particularly in the context of climate change and environmental sustainability. It is our hope that the research presented in this Special Issue will inform policy decisions and contribute to the development of sustainable practices in these vulnerable regions.

Dr. Yang Yu
Dr. Lei Wang
Dr. Cun Chang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate change
  • regional sustainability
  • arid lands
  • saline agriculture
  • seed ecology
  • LUCC
  • remote sensing
  • sustainable management

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

32 pages, 5530 KiB  
Article
Calibration for Improving the Medium-Range Soil Temperature Forecast of a Semiarid Region over Tibet: A Case Study
by Yakai Guo, Baojun Yuan, Aifang Su, Changliang Shao and Yong Gao
Atmosphere 2024, 15(5), 591; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15050591 - 13 May 2024
Viewed by 374
Abstract
The high complexity of the parameter–simulation problem in land surface models over semiarid areas makes it difficult to reasonably estimate the surface simulation conditions that are important for both weather and climate in different regions. In this study, using the dense site datasets [...] Read more.
The high complexity of the parameter–simulation problem in land surface models over semiarid areas makes it difficult to reasonably estimate the surface simulation conditions that are important for both weather and climate in different regions. In this study, using the dense site datasets of a typical semiarid region over Tibet and the Noah land surface model with the constrained land parameters of multiple sites, an enhanced Kling–Gupta efficiency criterion comprising multiple objectives, including variable and layer dimensions, was obtained, which was then applied to calibration schemes based on two global search algorithms (particle swarm optimization and shuffled complex evaluation) to investigate the site-scale spatial complexities in soil temperature simulations. The calibrations were then compared and further validated. The results show that the Noah land surface model obtained reasonable simulations of soil moisture against the observations with fine consistency, but the negative fit and huge spatial errors compared with the observations indicated its weak ability to simulate the soil temperature over regional semiarid land. Both calibration schemes significantly improved the soil moisture and temperature simulations, but particle swarm optimization generally converged to a better objective than shuffled complex evaluation, although with more parameter uncertainties and less heterogeneity. Moreover, simulations initialized with the optimal parameter tables for the calibrations obtained similarly sustainable improvements for soil moisture and temperature, as well as good consistency with the existing soil reanalysis. In particular, the soil temperature simulation errors for particle swarm optimization were unbiased, while those for the other method were found to be biased around −3 K. Overall, particle swarm optimization was preferable when conducting soil temperature simulations, and it may help mitigate the efforts in surface forecast improvement over semiarid regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Regional Sustainability in Arid Lands)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 3952 KiB  
Article
Water Resources Evaluation in Arid Areas Based on Agricultural Water Footprint—A Case Study on the Edge of the Taklimakan Desert
by Lingyun Zhang, Yang Yu, Ireneusz Malik, Malgorzata Wistuba, Lingxiao Sun, Meiling Yang, Qian Wang and Ruide Yu
Atmosphere 2023, 14(1), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14010067 - 29 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1528
Abstract
Water scarcity is an important factor limiting agricultural development in arid areas. Clarifying and evaluating the current situation of water resources in arid regions is helpful for decision-makers in the rational use of water resources. This study takes a typical arid region located [...] Read more.
Water scarcity is an important factor limiting agricultural development in arid areas. Clarifying and evaluating the current situation of water resources in arid regions is helpful for decision-makers in the rational use of water resources. This study takes a typical arid region located at the edge of Taklamakan Desert-Hotan region as the study area. The water footprint (WF) of the Hotan region was calculated based on 20 years of data information from 2000–2019. An evaluation system was established using four aspects of the WF: structural indicators, efficiency indicators, ecological safety indicators, and sustainability indicators. The results show that the WF of the study area is mainly dominated by blue water consumption, with a proportion of 65.74%. The WF of crop production is larger than that of livestock production. The produced WF of grain crops is the highest of all products with a share of 44.21%. The increase in the local agricultural WF reached 53.18% from 2000 to 2019, but it was still lower than the amount of water available for agriculture. The evaluation results indicated that the region’s WF import dependency is lower than the global level, with an annual average self-sufficiency rate of 91.13% and an increase of 878.95% in the WF economic efficiency index. The agricultural WF produced in Hotan is exported in the form of trade, but the quantitative contribution is small and does little to relieve water stress in other regions. The agricultural water consumption was still within the range of local water resources that could be carried but only 6 years of sustainable water use, and the future development was not optimistic. With the ratio of produced WF to available water resources maintained at about 58%, the local available water resources should be above 43.21 × 108 m3 to initially ensure the sustainable use of water resources. There were 12 drought years in the study period, which are prone to droughts and high disaster levels. The drought-water scarcity systems behaved in three phases: 2000–2011 (uncoordinated level), 2012–2015 (transitional phase), and 2016–2019 (coordinated level). Water scarcity threatened by drought reduced. The occurrence of meteorological droughts was more related to natural factors while the changes in WF were mainly driven by socio-economic elements such as human activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Regional Sustainability in Arid Lands)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop