Satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a proxy of vegetation productivity, is known to be correlated with temperature in northern ecosystems. This relationship, however, may change over time following alternations in other environmental factors. Here we show that above 30°N, the strength of the relationship between the interannual variability of growing season NDVI and temperature (partial correlation coefficient R NDVI-GT ) declined substantially between 1982 and 2011. This decrease in R NDVI-GT is mainly observed in temperate and arctic ecosystems, and is also partly reproduced by process-based ecosystem model results. In the temperate ecosystem, the decrease in R NDVI-GT coincides with an increase in drought. In the arctic ecosystem, it may be related to a nonlinear response of photosynthesis to temperature, increase of hot extreme days and shrub expansion over grass-dominated tundra. Our results caution the use of results from interannual time scales to constrain the decadal response of plants to ongoing warming.

The reliable detection and attribution of changes in vegetation growth is a prerequisite for the development of strategies for the sustainable management of ecosystems. This is an extraordinary challenge. To our knowledge, this study is the first to comprehensively detect and attribute a greening trend in China over the last three decades. We use three different satellite-derived Leaf Area Index (LAI) datasets for detection as well as five different process-based ecosystem models for attribution. Rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration and nitrogen deposition are identified as the most likely causes of the greening trend in China, explaining 85% and 41% of the average growing-season LAI trend (LAI GS ) estimated by satellite datasets (average trend of 0.0070 yr À1, ranging from 0.0035 yr À1 to 0.0127 yr À1 ), respectively. The contribution of nitrogen deposition is more clearly seen in southern China than in the north of the country. Models disagree about the contribution of climate change alone to the trend in LAI GS at the country scale (one model shows a significant increasing trend, whereas two others show significant decreasing trends). However, the models generally agree on the negative impacts of climate change in north China and Inner Mongolia and the positive impact in the Qinghai-Xizang plateau. Provincial forest area change tends to be significantly correlated with the trend of LAI GS (P < 0.05), and marginally significantly (P = 0.07) correlated with the residual of LAI GS trend, calculated as the trend observed by satellite minus that estimated by models through considering the effects of climate change, rising CO 2 concentration and nitrogen deposition, across different provinces. This result highlights the important role of China's afforestation program in explaining the spatial patterns of trend in vegetation growth.

Knowledge of the contribution that individual countries have made to global radiative forcing is important to the implementation of the agreement on "common but differentiated responsibilities" reached by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Over the past three decades, China has experienced rapid economic development, accompanied by increased emission of greenhouse gases, ozone precursors and aerosols, but the magnitude of the associated radiative forcing has remained unclear. Here we use a global coupled biogeochemistry-climate model and a chemistry and transport model to quantify China's present-day contribution to global radiative forcing due to well-mixed greenhouse gases, short-lived atmospheric climate forcers and land-use-induced regional surface albedo changes. We find that China contributes 10% ± 4% of the current global radiative forcing. China's relative contribution to the positive (warming) component of global radiative forcing, mainly induced by well-mixed greenhouse gases and black carbon aerosols, is 12% ± 2%. Its relative contribution to the negative (cooling) component is 15% ± 6%, dominated by the effect of sulfate and nitrate aerosols. China's strongest contributions are 0.16 ± 0.02 watts per square metre for CO2 from fossil fuel burning, 0.13 ± 0.05 watts per square metre for CH4, -0.11 ± 0.05 watts per square metre for sulfate aerosols, and 0.09 ± 0.06 watts per square metre for black carbon aerosols. China's eventual goal of improving air quality will result in changes in radiative forcing in the coming years: a reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions would drive a faster future warming, unless offset by larger reductions of radiative forcing from well-mixed greenhouse gases and black carbon.

We applied a land water mass balance equation over 59 major river basins during 2003-9 to estimate evapotranspiration (ET), using as input terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) data from the GRACE satellites, precipitation and in situ runoff measurements. We found that the terrestrial water storage change cannot be neglected in the estimation of ET on an annual time step, especially in areas with relatively low ET values. We developed a spatial regression model of ET by integrating precipitation, temperature and satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data, and used this model to extrapolate the spatio-temporal patterns of changes in ET from 1982 to 2009. We found that the globally averaged land ET is about 604 mm yr −1 with a range of 558-650 mm yr −1 . From 1982 to 2009, global land ET was found to increase at a rate of 1.10 mm yr −2 , with the Amazon regions and Southeast Asia showing the highest ET increasing trend. Further analyses, however, show that the increase in global land ET mainly occurred between the 1980s and the 1990s. The trend over the 2000s, its magnitude or even the sign of change substantially depended on the choice of the beginning year. This suggests a non-significant trend in global land ET over the last decade.

2-(methylthio)-1,4-diaryl-2-butene-1,4-dione (3) are prepared from readily available aryl methyl ketones in the presence of copper(II) oxide, iodine, and dimethyl sulfoxide. The success of the cross-coupling reaction of 4-chloroacetophenone with 2-acetylthiophene confirms a proposed self-sorting tandem reaction mechanism. Both Z- and E-isomers of compound 3 are readily converted into the corresponding 3-methylthio 2,5-diaryl furan 7 in good yield through a domino process involving the reduction of the double bond followed by the Paal-Knorr furan synthesis. Meanwhile, 4-bromo-3-methylthio 2,5-diaryl furan 10 is obtained either by the treatment of furan 7 with molecular bromine or by the treatment of diketone 3 with 30% hydrogen bromide in acetic acid solution in one pot. Removal of the methylthio group is accomplished by the treatment of 7 with Raney Ni in ethanol, which affords the diaryl-substituted furan 11 in excellent isolated yield. Selective reduction of the double bond of compound 3 leads to the formation of the saturated 1,4-diketone 13, which is easily converted to the corresponding 3-methylthio-2,5-diaryl-substituted pyrrole 14 and thiophene 15 via the Paal-Knorr cyclization reaction.

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We report the X-ray crystal structure of 11 molecular clips and analyze the influence of substituents (e.g., OMe, Me, and NO2) and their location on the observed crystal packing. Molecular clips 3a and 3b form tapelike structures in the crystal due to pi-pi interactions between the aromatic walls. Compounds 3d, 3eC, and 3fC form dimers driven by critical C-H...O interactions and then form tapes driven by pi-pi interactions in the crystal. These two building motifs, pi-pi and C-H...O interactions, can be used to rationalize the enantio- and diastereoselectivity observed in the X-ray crystal structures of the remaining five molecular clips. For example, the C-H...O interactions are found to dictate the formation of homochiral dimers in the structures of (+/-)-3eT and (+/-)-3fT and to control the diastereoselective formation of 6a2-6c2 dimeric motifs with internal p-dimethoxy-o-xylylene walls. Overall, the results suggest that substituent effects that induce even weak intermolecular interactions (e.g., C-H...O) can be used to reliably control crystal packing within glycoluril-based systems.