a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oImplementation of the Grain-for-Green project has resulted in significantly increased vegetative cover on the Loess Plateau of China during the past few decades. The plant communities influence soil moisture recharge and usage processes, particularly the input process, which is directly related to transformation of the limited precipitation into available soil water in the semi-arid Loess Plateau. A study to measure soil moisture dynamics of typical land cover types associated with precipitation events was conducted in a re-vegetated catchment area. Smart probes were inserted at 6 different depths below the ground surface under grass (Andropogon), subshrub (Artemisia scoparia), shrub (Spiraea pubescens), tree (Robinia pseudoacacia), and crop (Zea mays) vegetation to record volumetric soil moisture at 10-minute intervals for a period of 60 days during the growing season in 2011. The advance of the wetting front and total accumulated infiltrated water were measured. The rainfall events were sporadic with widely different intensities, and the soil moisture was replenished mainly by 3-4 heavy precipitation events during July and August. The mean soil moisture content profiles of the 5 vegetation types can be ordered as crop > grass > subshrub> tree> shrub and this relationship displayed time stability. The different land cover types clearly influenced the water infiltration and water input amounts in the re-vegetated area. The subshrub site showed the highest total infiltration amount (164 mm) with precipitation (227 mm) during the study period. The grass site had an infiltration amount of 156 mm. The tree site had a total precipitation of 154 mm and an infiltration amount of 97 mm. The infiltration amount was 136 mm for the shrub site and was the lowest (83 mm) for the crop site. Natural grasses displayed a rapid infiltration rate and the wetting front was able to reach a greater depth.

By combining living trees and archaeological wood, the annual mean temperatures were reconstructed based on ring-width indices of the mid-eastern Tibetan Plateau for the past 2485 years. The climate variations revealed by the reconstruction indicate that there were four periods to have average temperatures similar to or even higher than that mean of 1970 to 2000 AD. A particularly notable rapid shift from cold to warm, we call it the "Eastern Jin Event", occurred from 348 AD to 413 AD. Calculation results show that the temperature variations over the mid-eastern Tibetan Plateau are not only representative for large parts of north-central China, but also closely correspond to those of the entire Northern Hemisphere over long time scales. During the last 2485 years, the downfall of most major dynasties in China coincides with intervals of low temperature. Compared with the temperature records in other regions of China during the last 1000 years, this reconstruction from the Tibetan Plateau shows a significant warming trend after the 1950s.