：The distribution and transmission of natural focus diseases (NFDs) are closely related to the geographical environment. Further study on the relationship between geographical and environmental factors and distribution of NFDs is of great importance for the detection of natural foci and risk prediction of NFDs. Concentrated on the tick-borne diseases, this article provides an overview and analysis of the relationship between risk characteristics of NFDs and geographic and environmental factors, like soil, climate, vegetation and other man-made factors. Besides, this article has also summarized the detection methods of risk characteristics of NFDs, and the establishment and expression of risk prediction models. It points out the difficulties and research focus of current studies, and summarizes future research trends.

Geochemical elements of the lacustrine-swamp sediments are very sensitive to climate change. This study focused on the geochemical elements of the Dingnan Dahu swamp, Jiangxi Province and extracted three main component groups by using the principal component analysis method combined with related climate proxies, such as total organic carbon (TOC), organic carbon isotope (δ¹³C_org), median grain size (Md) and chemical index of alteration (CIA). Base on these element groups, we interpret how different geochemical elements respond to variant climate conditions and their behavior patterns. The result shows that the first principal component (PC1), includes the elements of Al₂O₃, TiO₂, SiO₂, Nb, Rb, Ga, Ba, S, and so on, indicates the weathering intensity of the lake basin; the second principal component (PC2), includes the elements of Co, Zr, and Hf, indicates hydrodynamic conditions of the Dingnan Dahu swamp; and the third principal component (PC3), includes the elements of Sc, Cu, U, and V, is heavily affected by the organic matter of the marshland. The curve of PC1 is similar to CIA, and higher loadings of PC1 suggests a warm and wet climate. The variation trends of PC2 and PC3 are similar to Md and TOC(and δ¹³C_org), respectively, and the higher loadings of PC2 and PC3 both suggest a cold and dry climate. The origin of this lacustrine deposit was mainly the local weathered products washed by surface runoff under the condition of warm and wet climate and strong chemical weathering. However, during the cold and dry periods, strong winter monsoon might have carried dust from local weathered products and deposited to the basin as well.

Palaeoflood hydrology, as an extended field of flood disaster research, has gained great achievements based on sedimentary records extracted from rivers. However, these river palaoeflood studies have limitations due to the short duration and incompleteness of sedimentary records. Lake sediments as a more efficient archive, however, often record a temporally complete palaeoflood sequence. This article reviews four most commonly applied methods to identify and reconstruct palaeofloods from lake sediments, that is, lithology and grain size, geochemical indicators, statistical analysis, and eliminating mass-movement from palaeoflood layers. Subsequently we explore the causal relationship between palaeofloods and change in continental scale atmospheric circulation and regional climate change. Finally, we discuss the prospects of several studies, including the physical mechanism of palaeoflood events and climate change, comparative study of lake palaeoflood records and regional river paleoflood records, and palaeoflood research in lakes, especially mountain lakes.

As one of the core areas of origin of the Chinese civilization, Henan Province is an ideal place for Holocene environmental archaeological research. In the past two decades, the majority of studies of environmental archaeology in Henan Province focused on the environmental background analysis of the evolution of culture. A small number of these studies was on the impact of catastrophic events and human responses to climate change. Digital environmental archaeology also began to develop. But the region still lacks relevant research on high-resolution paleoenvironment reconstruction. Although great attention was paid to the research of environmental impacts on culture development, human responses to environment change and the environmental effects of past human activities were rarely examined. With the broader application of remote sensing, GIS, and other technologies and constant attention to landscape archaeology, archaeological site location modeling and quantitative studies of prehistoric human-nature relationship have become the focus of international environmental archaeology.

Research on the timing, extent, and distribution of the late Quaternary glaciation in the East Asia monsoon area is very important for the discussion on the mechanism of the glacier development and global climate change. New absolute ages indicate that there were clear difference of the glacial advancement and retreat in and along the mountains and islands in East Asia, including on the Taiwan Island, in Japan, Hokkaido, Kaema Highlands, and Russian. However, the glacial history was strictly constrained by the last glacial cycle (LGC) corresponding to marine isotope stage (MIS) 4 and the glacial extent during the early stage of the LGC was larger than that of the late stage. Through comparing the characteristics of the glacial action in these mountains and islands, we confirmed the main influencing factors on the glacial development in the study area. The results show that climate, tectonic uplift, latitude, and the location away from the sea affected the onset of glaciation and glacier distribution and sequence in the East Asia monsoon area. According to these conclusions, it is not possible that glaciers advanced earlier than the LGC in the lower altitude mountains of East China.