Reducing agricultural carbon emissions (ACEs) is critical to achieving green agriculture in China. Chinese agriculture has long faced the dilemma of large numbers of people and small landholdings, well as low-quality arable land. As a result, agricultural production relies heavily on inputs of agricultural chemicals to boost yields, damaging the rural environment. In this study, we use provincial panel data from China and a spatial difference-in-differences model to explore the influence of rural land consolidation policy (RLCP) on ACEs and their spatial spillover effects. The results show that the global Moran's of ACEs reflected a downward trend, the spatial correlation gradually weakened, and ACEs developed from a state of polarization to one of balance. RLCP has had a significant reduction and a negative spatial spillover effect on ACEs. Our analysis of the mechanism shows that rural land consolidation promoted the reduction of ACEs by improving the quality of farmland soil and the utilization rate of water resources. Under different geographical conditions, the construction of rural land consolidation has had a significant ACE reduction effect on both the south and the north, although RLCP in southern China has had a negative spatial spillover effect.

The rupture of Fund & atilde;o Dam spilled contaminated tailings across the Doce river basin, severely damaging municipalities such as the urban Barra Longa and the rural Gesteira. The wave of tailings led to the sediment deposition in rivers margins, causing the loss of riparian forests and cropping areas. Sediment analyses confirmed the presence of toxic compounds (sodium and ether amine) and a very low fertility. In consequence, there was a sharp decline in agro-pastoral production in Gesteira, leading to land abandonment and rural exodus. In the urban area of Barra Longa, the wave of tailings damaged the urban floodplain and the square, which were rehabilitated using grey infrastructure. Alternatively, we proposed a new landscape recovery plan for both Barra Longa and Gesteira based on Nature and Community-based solutions that contemplate the inclusion of green infrastructure, the remediation of toxic compounds, the restoration of soil fertility, permeability and stabilization, riparian forest rehabilitation and the recovery of agro-pastoral productivity, ultimately aiming at reducing the flood risk and land abandonment.

Poverty and income inequality are problems faced by many countries including China. Since the implementation of Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA), absolute poverty has been eradicated, meanwhile, Chinese rural residents' income and inequality have experienced unprecedented new dynamics, but still, very few studies have focused on them. Hence, we attempt to examine the new trends in Chinese farmers' income inequality and to understand its causes during this period. We observe that China's urban-rural income ratio has been shrinking and the urban-rural inequality has been decreasing from 2014 to 2021. The reduction in the Theil index indicates a decrease in the regional inequality of farmers' income as well, and the decline in inter-regional inequality among eight economic zones contributes about 80% to increased equality. These new trends are caused by the fact that, with the TPA, the incomes of rural residents especially that in destitute areas, grew faster than that of urban residents and farmers in prosperous areas. The higher share of non-agricultural industry and agricultural mechanization level have significant positive impact on regional equality of farmers' income, while urban-rural dual structure has significant negative inhibitory effects. The lowest farmers' income and the highest inequality in the Northwest, and the slowest growth in the Northeast deserve more attention in rural Revitalization. From these findings, we propose four policy implications that would be applied to improve Chinese farmers' income equality, govern relative poverty, and achieve common prosperity in the post-poverty era.

The China Desertification Ecological Restoration Project has effectively curbed the problem of soil desertification in Northwest China, and improved the ecological environment and landscape pattern of the Dunhuang Desertification Control Area. As the birthplace of Dunhuang culture, the ecological landscape of Yueyaquan Village shows strong sensitivity to disturbances, and in order to improve the ecological landscape resilience, an ecological landscape resilience evaluation system for desertification control villages was constructed from three levels: ecosystem, engineering system, and cultural traditions, and the results show that: (1) villages in the context of desertification control are difficult to resist the damages brought by natural disasters, and therefore the ability to resist determines the key factor of the ecological landscape resilience of villages. resilience level. (2) Through the empirical analysis of the ecological landscape system, engineering system and cultural system of Yueyaquan Village, it is found that the engineering system of the village has high resilience, the ecosystem resilience is average, and the resilience of the cultural system is weak, which reduces ecosystem resilience. The research results can guide subsequent improvement strategies for ecological landscape construction and provide new thoughts and ideas for rural environmental renovation and resilience enhancement.

Sichuan Basin is encircled by high mountains and plateaus with the heights ranging from 1 km to 3 km, and is one of the most polluted regions in China. However, the dominant chemical species and light absorption properties of aerosol particles is still not clear in rural areas. Chemical composition in PM1 (airborne particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 1 mu m) and light-absorbing properties were determined in Chengdu (urban) and Sanbacun (rural) in western Sichuan Basin (WSB), Southwest China. Carbonaceous aerosols and secondary inorganic ions (NH4+, NO3- and SO42-) dominate PM1 pollution, contributing more than 85% to PM1 mass at WSB. The mean concentrations of organic and elemental carbon (OC, EC), K+ and Cl- are 19.69 mu g m(-3), 8.00 mu g m(-3), 1.32 mu g m(-3),1.16 mu g m(-3) at the rural site, which are 26.2%, 65.3%, 34.7% and 48.7% higher than those at the urban site, respectively. BrC (brown carbon) light absorption coefficient at 405 nm is 63.90 +/- 27.81 M m(-1) at the rural site, contributing more than half of total absorption, which is about five times higher than that at urban site (10.43 +/- 4.74 M m(-1)). Compared with secondary OC, rural BrC light absorption more depends on primary OC from biomass and coal burning. The rural MAE(Brc) (BrC mass absorption efficiency) at 405 nm ranges from 0.6 to 5.1 m(2) g(-1) with mean value of 3.5 +/- 0.8 m(2) g(-1), which is about three times higher than the urban site. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Black carbon (BC) aerosols are one of the most uncertain drivers of global climate change. The prevailing view is that BC mass concentrations are low in rural areas where industrialization and vehicular emissions are at a minimum. As part of a national research program called the Ganga Basin Ground Based Experiment-2014 under the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) Phase-III of Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, the continuous measurements of BC and particulate matter (PM) mass concentrations, were conducted in a rural environment in the highly-polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain region during 16th June to 15th August (monsoon period), 2014. The mean mass concentration of BC was 4.03 (+/- 0.85) mu g m(-3) with a daily variability between 2.4 and 5.64 mu g m(-3), however, the mean mass PM concentrations [near ultrafine (PM1.0), fine (PM2.5) and inhalable (PM1.0)] were 29.1(+/- 16.2), 34.7 (+/- 19.9) and 43.7 (+/- 283) mu g m(-3), respectively. The contribution of BC in PM1.0 was approximately 13%, which is one of the highest being recorded. Diurnally, the BC mass concentrations were highest (mean: 5.89 mu g m(-3)) between 20:00 to 22:00 local time (LT) due to the burning of biofuels/biomass such as wood, dung, straw and crop residue mixed with dung by the local residents for cooking purposes. The atmospheric direct radiative forcing values due to the composite and BC aerosols were determined to be +78.3, +44.9, and +45.0 W m(-2) and +42.2, +35.4 and +34.3 W m(-2) during the months ofJune, July and August, respectively. The corresponding atmospheric heating rates (AHR) for composite and BC aerosols were 2.21,1.26 and 1.26; and 1.19, 0.99 and 0.96 K day(-1) for the month ofJune, July and August, respectively, with a mean of 1.57 and 1.05 K day(-1) which was 33% lower AHR (BC) than for the composite particles during the study period. This high AHR underscores the importance of absorbing aerosols such as BC contributed by residential cooking using biofuels in India. Our study demonstrates the need for immediate, effective regulations and policies that mitigate the emission of BC particles from domestic cooking in rural areas of India. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A dramatic increase in winter (December-February) temperature by 7.2 K (1.1K per decade) since 1950 has occurred in the Ulan Bator basin, Mongolia. This increase in temperature strongly exceeds the global average of late twentieth century warming and even exceeds warming in most of the polar regions with pronounced increases in temperature. The exceptional warming is restricted to Ulan Bator within the Mongolian forest-steppe region and to wintertime. This suggests that the observed warming could result from radiative forcing by black carbon aerosols. In winter, Ulan Bator's air is heavily polluted by particulate matter, including black carbon, originating from the combustion of low-quality fuel at low temperature. Winter smog has strongly increased in recent decades, concomitant to the increase in winter temperature, as the result of a strong increase in the city's population. Exponential growth of Ulan Bator's population started in the mid-twentieth century, but since 1990, altered socioeconomic frame conditions and a warming climate have driven more than 700,000 pastoralists from rural Mongolia to Ulan Bator where people live in provisional dwellings and cause Ulan Bator's heavy air pollution. Tree-ring analysis from larch trees growing at the edge of the Ulan Bator basin shows negative correlation of stem increment with December temperature. This result suggests that milder winters promote herbivores and, thus, reduce the tree's productivity. The negative impact of winter warming on the larch forests adds to adverse effects of summer drought and the impact of high sulfur dioxide emissions. Winter warming putatively associated with high atmospheric concentrations of black carbon aerosols in the Ulan Bator basin is an interesting example of a case where greenhouse gas-mediated climate warming in an area where people themselves hardly contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions affects both humans and ecosystems and causes additional local climate warming.

Observations on black carbon (BC) aerosols over an urban site (Pune) and a rural, high altitude site (Sinhagad) during summer and winter seasons over the period of 2009-2013 are reported. Apart from the temporal variation of BC over both the sites, its mass fraction to total suspended particulates (TSP) is studied. Finally, using the chemical composition of TSP and BC in the OPAC model, season-wise optical properties of aerosols are obtained which are further used in the SBDART model to derive the aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) at surface and top of the atmosphere and thereby the atmospheric forcing and heating rates in each season over both the sites. BC mass concentration and its mass fraction to TSP (Mf BC) were higher at Pune than at Sinhagad, indicating impact of more anthropogenic sources. At both the sites winter season witnessed higher BC concentrations than summer as well as higher Mf BC which is due to the prevailing favorable meteorological conditions in winter. Diurnal variation of BC showed different patterns at Pune and Sinhagad in terms of strength and occurrence of high and low values that could be attributed to varying local boundary layer conditions and source activities at both the sites. Negative ARF indicated cooling at top of the atmosphere and at surface leading to warming of the atmosphere at both the sites. However, surface cooling and atmospheric warming was more dominant at Pune leading to higher atmospheric heating rates, underlining the impact of absorbing BC aerosols which were about three times more at Pune than Sinhagad. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seasonal variations in mixing states of aerosols over an urban (Kanpur) and a rural location (Gandhi College) in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) are determined using the measured and modelled optical properties, and the impact of aerosol mixing state on radiative forcing is examined. Different fractions of black carbon (BC) and water-soluble aerosols in core-shell mixing emerged as the probable mixing state during winter, monsoon and post-monsoon over Kanpur. The degree of mixing, i.e. the percentage mass fraction of aerosols involved in core-shell mixing, is found to exhibit seasonal variations. Owing to the abundance of mineral dust (MD) during the pre-monsoon, MD coated by BC emerges as the most probable mixing state. Top-of-atmosphere (TOA) forcing changes its sign from positive for external mixing to negative for different probable mixing states during the pre-monsoon over both locations, as single scattering albedo is lower for external mixing. However, for other seasons, the TOA forcing is negative for external and different probable core-shell mixing states of aerosols. Surface aerosol forcing for probable mixing state during the post-monsoon is higher (44 W m2) over Kanpur, and is lower (24 W m2) over Gandhi College. A regression between instantaneous model-derived aerosol forcing and AERONET-measured forcing yielded r2 > 0.9, which confirms the robustness of the methodology adopted to retrieve aerosol optical properties and estimate forcing. Heating rates over Kanpur and Gandhi College during the pre-monsoon and monsoon are approximate to 0.75 K d1 and approximate to 0.5 K d1 respectively. Differences exist between measured and model-derived asymmetry parameter, g, owing to the non-sphericity of aerosols. However, aerosol radiative forcing is found to be weakly sensitive to the variation in g due to high (> 0.2) surface albedo. The modelling study provides new insights into the state of aerosol mixing, and indicates that aerosol mixing can vary depending on the type and abundance of aerosol species. Copyright (c) 2012 Royal Meteorological Society