Large‐scale coal mining not only disturbs natural landscapes but also alters catchment hydrological processes. Although investigating how mining activities such as open cut and/or underground mining change catchment baseflow is critical for understanding mining‐related hydrological mechanisms and for helping water resource management, published data on these changes have not been well documented. This study uses data‐driven approaches to examine how baseflow changes in four sets of paired catchments in the Hunter River Basin in Australia, which is one of the most intensive mining regions across the globe. The difference of cumulative anomaly percentage and double mass curves are used to detect the changes in baseflow and to identify the potential mining impacts. Our results show that underground mining has led to a decline in baseflow, while open cut mining has tended to increase baseflow, and significantly changed the baseflow trend for catchments where underground and open cut mining coexist. The mining impact signal, however, is on the top of regional climate change impacts that dominate baseflow annual variability. The data‐driven investigation cannot separate impacts due to multiple and overlapping disturbances of mining activities but provides insight and guidance for hydrological modeling to simulate mining impacts on hydrological regimes.

Surface water bodies exhibit dynamic characteristics, undergoing variations in size, shape, and flow patterns over time due to numerous natural and human factors. The monitoring of spatial-temporal changes in surface water bodies is crucial for the sustainable development and efficient utilization of water resources. In this study, Landsat series images on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, along with the HydroLAKES and China Reservoir datasets, were utilized to establish an extraction process for surface water bodies from 1986 to 2021 in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). The study aims to investigate the dynamics of surface water bodies and the driving factors within the YRB. The findings reveal an overall expansion tendency of surface water bodies in the YRB between 1986 and 2021. In the YRB, the total area of surface water bodies, natural lakes, and artificial reservoirs increased by 2983.8 km² (40.4%), 281.1 km² (11.5%), and 1017.6 km² (101.7%), respectively. A total of 102 natural lakes expanded, while 23 shrank. Regarding artificial reservoirs, 204 expanded, and 77 shrank. The factors that contributed most to the increase in the surface water bodies were increasing precipitation and reservoir construction, whose contribution rates could reach 47% and 32.6%, respectively. Additionally, the rising temperatures melted permafrost, ice, and snow, positively correlating with water expansion in the upper reaches of the YRB, particularly natural lakes.

The impact of extreme climate events on vegetation growth and ecosystem function has garnered widespread attention, particularly in plateau regions, which are facing increasingly severe environmental pressures. This study employs the Events Coincidence Analysis (ECA) method to examine the impacts of extreme climate events on the Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of vegetation in plateau regions. Specifically, we focus on the unique phenomenon of asymmetric daytime and nighttime warming and evaluate the compounding effect of extreme precipitation with extreme temperature events. The results indicate that grassland NPP has higher overall sensitivity and Coincidence Rates (CR) to extreme precipitation events compared to extreme temperature events. Specifically, extreme drought events significantly negatively impact grassland NPP, and the sensitivity of NPP increases with the severity of extreme drought events. In lower elevations (<3200 m), grassland NPP shows a strong response to extreme precipitation events, with sensitivity decreasing with increasing elevation, especially for alpine meadows. Extreme high-temperature events contributed significantly to NPP in mid to high elevations (3000–5000 m). Compound extreme climate events amplify the average coincidence degree with NPP anomalies, with extreme precipitation events playing a major role in compound effects. The CR of compound climate events can reach above 0.6, reflected in the anomaly increase of NPP in temperate grasslands at higher elevations caused by compound events of extremely wet and extremely high temperatures.