The Reviews of Geophysics(IF=12.34), the most influential review journal in the field of geosciences, published a review article titled "Dryland climate change: recent progress and challenges" jointly written by professor huang jianping (the first author), academician fu jiangbin (the corresponding author) and 19 other authors from the school of atmospheric sciences, lanzhou university.This paper reviews the latest advances and challenges in the study of arid and semi-arid climate change.

Arid and semi-arid regions, which account for 42% of the world's land area and feed 38% of the world's population, have extremely fragile ecological environments and are sensitive to global climate change and human activities.It is of great scientific and practical significance for the formulation of regional sustainable development strategies and long-term adaptation strategies to deeply understand the evolution rules and response mechanisms of the past and future climate in arid and semi-arid regions under the background of global change.

This paper summarizes the spatiotemporal characteristics of climate change in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, and discusses the main physical processes and feedback mechanisms that influence arid and semi-arid climate change, including: dust - cloud - precipitation, land-air and sea-air interaction and the impact of human activities.The study points out that the global arid and semi-arid regions have the most significant temperature increase in the past 100 years.The change of drying degree is mainly caused by the increase of greenhouse gases, and the overall influence of man-made aerosols is small.Land-air interaction determines the response intensity of regional drought in different regions.The interaction between sea and air determines the global decadal scale of dry and wet changes;Historical data and numerical simulation results show that the global arid and semi-arid regions are expanding and will accelerate in the future.The combined effects of climate change, increased drought and population growth will increase the risk of desertification in developing countries.At the end of the paper, the main research direction of arid and semi-arid climate change in the future is discussed.

Thesis link:

Huang, j., y. Li, c. Fu, f. Chen, q. Fu, a. Dai, m. Shinoda, z. Ma, w. Guo, z. Li, l. Zhang, y. Liu, h. Yu, y. He, y. Xie, X. Guan, m. Ji, l. Lin, s. Wang, h. Yan, and g. Wang (2017)Dryland climate change: recent progress and challenges, Reviews of Geophysics, 55, 719-778, doi: 10.1002/2016 rg000550.

http://http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016RG000550/full

Extended reading:

Reviews of Geophysics, founded in 1963, is a comprehensive academic journal sponsored by the American geophysical union (AGU).As a peer-reviewed journal that only accepts contributions, it publishes about 20 papers each year, covering solid geophysics, cryosphere science, atmospheric science, Marine science and space physics.

The chief editor of Review of Geophysics (Geophysics) issued a special recommendation on Eos Editors' Vox and Eos Buzz Newsletter (Eos: Earth and space science) at https://eos.org/editors-vox/future-looks-drier-first-floor drylands-continue-to-expand