Coping with climate change in socio-ecological systems is one of the most urgent issues facing the world. This is particularly true in socio-ecological systems, where climate not only influences social and ecosystem dynamics, but also modulates their interaction. In this paper, we presented a conceptual framework through a literature review and a trend analysis for assessing the impact of climate change that incorporates socio-ecological interactions. In particular, we focused on the Mongolian pastoral system, which has tightly coupled socio-ecological interactions, as a model for describing the framework. Our framework suggests that the flexibility in mobility of herders is the principal factor in determining the vulnerability of the socio-ecological system to climate change. The flexibility varies along a climatic gradient and socio-ecological interactions in each region have evolved to be suited to its local climate regime. Herders in northern and central regions of Mongolia move shorter distances, and less flexible, than those in southern (Gobi) region. Climatic hazards, on the other hand have been increasing across Mongolia with a trend toward warmer and drier conditions since the 1960s. We suggest that further warming and drying would have the greatest impact on northern and central regions due to lower flexibility in mobility among herders there coupled with the much higher livestock density in the regions. The findings support that maintaining flexibility of mobile herding will likely be crucial to reducing the vulnerability of the Mongolian pastoral system to climate change.

Canola (Brassica napus) is cultivated for oil as a biofuel crop. Few quantitative data concerning its tolerance to abiotic stresses has been presented. We evaluated the tolerances of canola to drought and salinity stresses in terms of parameter values in a macroscopic root water uptake model. We conducted an experiment using nine columns with two plants in each: three columns were under drought stresses, another three were under saline stress and others provided potential transpiration. Two soil moisture and salinity probes were inserted into each of the six columns under stress to monitor water content and electrical conductivity. Weight of the columns was manually measured to obtain daily transpiration. Water uptake at each depth and time was calculated by substituting linearly interpolated matric and osmotic potentials into the stress response function. Determined stress response functions indicated that canola is more sensitive to drought compared to Jatropha. While, it was found to be as tolerant as Jatropha to salinity stress in terms of transpiration. Matric potential was more determining than osmotic potential to root water uptake of canola.

冬期の降水データが不足がちな積雪地域の４つのダム流域において，日単位の降水量と気温データから解析できる山地流域を対象とした水循環モデルについて，年水収支量と流況曲線の形状を確認しつつ降水量と流出量の補正を行い，モデルパラメータをキャリブレーションすることで解析を行った．そして，現実的な将来流出予測のため，GCM気候値にMIROC5の最も昇温が高いRCP8.5排出シナリオを利用し，既に実測値が存在する近い将来（2006年～2020年）の水循環解析を行い，季節単位の流出予測を行った．主な結果は次の通りである．①水循環解析で得たハイドログラフの相対誤差は凡そ30%代前半であり，冬期の降水データが十分に得られない流域において一定の再現性が得られた．②近い将来の流出予測において，実測値を定性的に予測できたのは4流域16季節中，12季節であった．③流出量の予測値が実測値をほぼ表したのは，春期（3月－5月）の流量減少と，秋期（9月－11月）の流量増加であった．

— Crop abandonment is a factor responsible for soil degradation in semi-arid regions. The effects of crop abandonment on soil restoration may depend on soil properties and climatic conditions...

Desertification has been estimated by various perspectives such as meteorology and geography. Desertification indicates the changing of the vegetation and the ecosystem function. However, the evaluation of the desertified area in terms of ecosystem function is not fully understood. Therefore, we calculated the time series fluctuation of desertification using the ecosystem function index (resistance and resilience). We used MODIS satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and short-term Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) data. Resistance and resilience calculated from NDVI. We estimate desertification by resistance and resilience during drought period. The results show trends of fluctuation of resistance and resilience, which indicates a condition of desert areas.

Low flow is related to the soil and geological conditions in a basin as well as rainfall, basin scale, and topography. Nonlinearity of runoff was originally described by Horton (1936) as a storage–discharge relationship, which is now used in many hydrological models for various purposes such as water resources planning and the assessment of projections of climate change impact on runoff. The storage–discharge relationship was represented in the form of Q=KNSN by Ding (2011). The constant K was already considered in the recession coefficient of groundwater runoff by Ando et al. (1983). The relationship between K and N was indicated as an inversely proportional equation by Fujimura et al. (2016) who carried out a sensitivity analysis. Although the understanding of the storage–discharge equation has been developed, the uncertainties of the parameters have not been resolved. To reduce the uncertainties of the parameters and improve the accuracy of hydrological models, it is important to clarify how natural factors in a basin, such as soil and geology, affect the parameters in the hydrological models. Therefore, we aim to investigate the statistical correlations between the recession constant K and the coverage rates of specific soil types and the geology in a basin.The nine basins selected for this study are located in mountainous regions in Japan with different topographical, geological, and climatological conditions. The basin areas range from 103 to 332km2. Rainfall and runoff data were downloaded from databases of the Water Information System of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) of the Meteorological Agency, respectively. The specific soil types and geological information (specific geological time and rock formations) of 1:200000 scale were obtained from databases of the Japan soil inventory of the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) and of the Seamless Digital Geological Map of Japan of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), respectively. The conceptual hydrological model for mountainous basins developed by Fujimura et al. (2011) was applied for a period of more than 15 years at hourly time steps to optimize the recession constant K for each study basin.The results indicate that the recession coefficient K has correlations and significant differences (significance level alpha of 0.05) with the coverage rates of (a) Brown forest soils (p value of 0.00026), (b) Neogene rock formation (p value of 0.0049), and (c) Andosols / Volcanic rock formation ratio (p value of 0.012). The Andosols formation depends essentially on human activity as well as volcanic ash. The volcanic ash and volcanic rock might have been produced in the same geological time. To show the effect of human activity and other environmental factors, the area of Andosols is divided by the area of volcanic rock.