Reassessing long-term drought risk and societal impacts in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Northeast China (CE 1200–2015)

Abstract

Abstract. The occurrence of two severe droughts in Northeastern China since CE 2000 has raised attention in the risk presented by droughts. This paper presents a historic drought series for Shenyang in the Liaoning province, NE China since CE 1200 to present, with a reconstructed long precipitation series (1906–2015), augmented with historical documentary accounts. Analysis of the instrumental series using a standardised precipitation index (SPI) and extending it using historical records has produced a combined series spanning over eight centuries. The combined long series was analysed for patterns in drought frequency, severity and typology. Three droughts comparable to those since CE 2000 occur in the instrumental series during early twentieth century (e.g. 1907, 1916–18 and 1920–21), and coeval archival sources reveal the human impacts of these severe droughts. The archival sources demonstrate how reduced vulnerability resulting from societal and cultural changes in the early twentieth century helped prevent the loss of life experienced during comparable severe droughts at the end of the nineteenth century (1887 and 1891). Incorporating a longer temporal perspective to drought analysis shows that onset is often earlier than is documented explicitly within the archives, and so combined SPI series for a region could provide an early warning of drought development expressed as a water deficit in the previous year. Analysis of archival data provides a rich historical description of impacts and societal responses to severe drought. The archives provide a rich historical description of drought impacts and responses at the personal and community level, whilst also detailing the different roles played by communities, state and international organisations in responding to events.

Improving DNA barcoding library of armored scale insects (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) in China

“…Detailed information on each specimen, including location, host plant, and GenBank accession numbers in NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), is provided in S1 Table . A combined molecular/morphological preparation protocol was performed on each specimen to obtain genomic DNA from the specimens and permanent slides of its cuticle [38]. Morphological identification was conducted independently by Jiufeng Wei and Minmin Niu, according to the morphological studies of the Diaspididae of Williams and Watson [39], Tang [20,40,41], Chou [42][43][44]. Specimen vouchers were deposited in Insect Specimen Museum, College of Plant Protection, Shanxi Agricultural University.…”

Research on the Conservation and Utilization of Landscape Heritage in Modern Urban Parks in Shenyang, China

“…Sato (1985) introduced urban park greening in Manchuria during Japanese colonial rule [14]. Tang (1995) introduced a brief history of urban planning in Northeast China [15]. Li et al (2003) discussed the historical process through which Japan took Manchuria as the testing site of modern urban planning theory in Europe and America [16].…”