Under the influence of global climate change, the discharges of major global rivers directed into the ocean have undergone significant changes. To study the trends and causes in discharge variation, we selected 40 large rivers and analyzed their annual discharges near their estuaries from 1960 to 2010. The method of runoff variation attribution analysis based on the Budyko hypothesis for large-scale basins was developed, in which influencing factors of human activities and glacial melting factors were added to the formula. The contribution rate of climate factors and human activities to changes in discharge were quantitatively identified. Climatic factors include precipitation, evapotranspiration and glacial melting. Human activity factors include underlying surface and artificial water transfer. The contribution rate is determined by the elastic coefficient, which is obtained by the ratio of change rate of each factor and the change rate of runoff. The results indicated that the discharges predominantly showed downward trends with a few upward trends. Rivers in North America and Africa showed downward trends, and those in Europe principally showed upward trends. Climate was the main influencing factor of discharges changes, and only approximately 25% of river discharges were greatly affected by human activities. River discharges in 75% of the basins which mainly contains subtropical monsoon humid climate and savanna climate zones showed upward trends. In the four basins which are mainly contains tropical rainforest climate and tropical monsoon climate, they all showed downward trends. The trend of discharges in the temperate monsoon climate, temperate continental climate, and temperate maritime climate cannot be accurately judged because of irregular variation. The discharges in the mid-high latitudinal zones predominantly showed upward trends, while those in the mid-low latitudinal zones with the influence of human activities showed downward trends.

Ecosystem service values are closely related to land use/cover change, however, the values affected by land use/cover change in the context of climate variability remain unclear. Based on the land use/cover data of 2000, 2010, and 2020 in the Yiluo River Basin, we quantitatively analyzed the impacts of historical land use/cover change on the ecosystem service values. Then the future land use simulation model was applied to predict the land use/cover distribution in 2030 under three Representative Concentration Pathways scenarios, and the influences on ecosystem service values were analyzed further. We found that the total ecosystem service values in the Yiluo River Basin presented a growth from 9217 million dollars (2000) to 9676 million dollars (2020), which attributed to the increase of forestland and water bodies in recent years. By 2030, the total ecosystem service values continued to present an upward trend, while also showing a difference under three scenarios, this discrepancy was mainly caused by different precipitation conditions. With the introduction of the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin in the new period, climate change may be the main factors affecting the ecological field in the future.

In this study, the major winter wheat planting area of China is selected as the study area, with the time scale of the growth period of winter wheat (a total of 56 growth periods during October 1961 to May 2016). The significance, stability, magnitude of the trend and the average trend of the study area with eight temperature indices and seven precipitation indices of 453 meteorological stations are tested by Mann–Kendall method and Sen’s nonparametric method. The following observation can be made: (1) the cold extreme indices show strong and stable downward trend in most of the stations in the study area, while the hot extreme indices show a strong and stable upward trend, especially in the northern winter wheat planting area and the north of the southern winter wheat planting area. (2) The trends of extreme precipitation indices in most of the sites in the study area are insignificant and unstable. Only in R20mm, a significant and stable decreasing trend is shown in some stations, which is mainly located in the northern winter wheat planting area and part of the central and western regions in the study area. The results in some ways could enrich the references for understanding the climate change in the growth period of winter wheat in the region and help to formulate a better agronomic management practice of winter wheat.

Runoff is the key driving factor of the Ganjiang River ecosystem. Human activities such as reservoir construction have greatly changed the state of runoff. In order to analyze the influence of Ganjiang Reservoir on the hydrological regime, the following paper is based on the daily precipitation data of 53 rainfall stations in Ganjiang River Basin from 1959 to 2016, and the daily runoff data of three stations in Dongbei, Ji’an, and Waizhou from 1959 to 2016. The Mann–Kendall test (MK) was used to analyze the trend of precipitation and runoff in Ganjiang River Basin. The Sliding t-Test (ST) was used to determine the abrupt change time of runoff in flood season within typical cross-sections of upper, middle, and lower reaches of Ganjiang River Basin, Ji’an, and Waizhou. Indicators of hydrological change (IHA), range of variability approach (RVA), and other methods were used to analyze the changes of 32 hydrological indicators in Ganjiang River Basin. The results showed that (1) The annual and flood season precipitation in Ganjiang River Basin increased from 1992 to 2016, but it did not reach a significant level. The change of annual runoff at Dongbei and Waizhou Stations was the same as that of the annual precipitation in Ganjiang River Basin. The runoff of Dongbei Station in flood season decreased from 1986 to 2016, and the runoff of Waizhou Railway Station in flood season decreased from 2008 to 2016. It showed that precipitation had a great influence on annual runoff, and human activities made the annual runoff distribution process more uniform; (2) The abrupt changes of runoff in flood season at three hydrological stations in Ganjiang River Basin occurred in 1991, and reached a significant level of 0.01; (3) There were five hydrological indicators of Dongbei Station which had reached height change. The change degree of low (l) pulse duration was −92.24%, the change degree of high (h) pulse count was −86.8%, the change degree of flow rise rate was 87.06%, the change degree of fall rate was −92.24%, and the change degree of number of reversals was −100%. Four hydrological indicators of Ji’an Station had reached high change degree, the count and duration of high pulse changes were −73.33% and −73.65%, the change degree of fall rate was −79%, and the change degree of number of reversals was −100%. Waizhou Station did not reach the high change indicator. The hydrological regime of the upper and middle reaches of Ganjiang River has changed greatly, while the hydrological regime of the lower reaches has changed little. The hydrological regime in the upper and middle reaches of Ganjiang River Basin has been highly changed by human activities such as dam construction. The change of hydrological conditions in the upper and middle reaches of Ganjiang River Basin may reduce the area of aquatic organisms’ habitat, be harmful to the spawning, migration, and survival of aquatic organisms, reduce the interception of organic matter in floodplains, and increase the drought pressure of plants. The reservoir ecological operation of rivers with numerous reservoirs should be considered, joint reservoir dispatching schemes should be formulated for the study area so as to maximize the comprehensive benefits. This study provides a reference for water resources management and reservoir operation in Ganjiang River Basin. The next step is to use a habitat model to simulate the habitat of Ganjiang River Basin.

Slope ecological restoration and climate change are important factors affecting the hydrological processes of the Huangshui River Basin in Qinghai province, China. How to quantitatively identify the impact of slope ecological restoration on runoff and whether slope ecological restoration can mitigate the impact of future climate change on runoff are both very important. In this paper, the Huangshui River above the center of Minhe county was taken as the research area, and the Pinus tabulaeformis and shrubs were taken as the main forest land types of slope ecological restoration. First, based on the law of forest land variation, the construction scales of slope ecological restoration in different periods were identified. The influence of slope ecological restoration on runoff was then quantitatively evaluated by using a distributed hydrological model. Second, the future climate scenarios of five general circulation models (GCMs) under three representative concentration pathways (RCPs) (i.e., RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5) from 2021 to 2050 were selected and modified by model integration. Combined with the slope ecological restoration scenarios, the influence of slope ecological restoration on runoff under future climate scenarios was explored. The results showed that the effect of slope ecological restoration was significant. Compared with 1980, the area of slope ecological restoration increased by 24% in 2017. Under the present climate conditions (1960–2017), different periods of slope ecological restoration have an effect on the process of runoff in the wet season (June, July, August, and September) and dry season (January, February, March, and December), which eliminates the maximum, replenishes the minimum, and reduces the variability of runoff processes in the watershed. Under the future climate scenario (2021–50), slope ecological restoration will reduce runoff. On the other hand, climate change will increase runoff, and the combination of the two effects will have a certain offsetting effect. On the whole, comparing the influence of slope ecological restoration on the runoff process with that of climate change in different seasons, due to the main influence of slope ecological restoration, the runoff decreased by about 55% in the temperate season (April, May, October, and November), and increased by about 50% in the dry season or wet season due to the main influence of future climate scenarios.

Changes in water and sediment conditions in the Upper Yellow River Basin (UYRB), which contains the ecological barrier and “water tower” of the entire Yellow River Basin, directly affect the development of the downstream ecological environment. In this study, the impacts of recent and potential land use and climate changes on runoff and sediment load were investigated through statistical analysis, land-use maps, scenario estimations, and hydrological modelling. The temporal trends and abrupt changes in hydro-meteorological elements from 1957-2010 were analysed using linear regressions and moving-t tests. Transformations in land use from 1990 to 2014 were determined using a transfer matrix analysis. The back propagation neural network was constructed to modify and integrate several general climate models, and it projected the climate change evolution characteristics in the UYRB from 2021 to 2100 under different emission scenarios. On this basis, the effects of recent and potential land use and climate changes on runoff and sediment load were quantified using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model and fifteen climate scenarios, respectively. The results show a significant decreasing trends for both runoff and sediment loads with warmer and wetter climate conditions in the past 50 years. An abrupt change in runoff occurred in 1990, and a notable change in sediment load occurred in 2000 which was defined as the dividing year of the study period. The warm and wet climate characteristics of the UYRB will continue from 2021 to 2100. Over the past 20 years, the transformation of land use in the URYB has intensified. Therefore, land use changes between 1990 and 2000 show significant increasing wetland trends and decreasing bare land and grassland trends. The SWAT simulation results indicated that climate changes have had a more significant impact on runoff than land use changes in the past 20 years, increasing runoff by 6.32%. Both land use and climate changes have great impacts on sediment load reduction. For the next 80 years, the potential land use change demonstrated greater impacts on runoff and sediment load than climate changes. The runoff and sediment load exhibited different trends under various climate conditions and emission scenarios. The results obtained in this study can provide useful information for water resource management, soil and water conservation, and ecological protection in the UYRB.