Accurate rice area extraction and yield simulations are important for understanding how national agricultural policies and environmental issues affect regional spatial changes in rice farming. In this study, an improved regional parametric syntheses approach, that is, the rice zoning adaptability criteria and dynamic harvest index (RZAC-DHI), was established, which can effectively simulate the rice cultivation area and yield at the municipal level. The RZAC was used to extract the rice area using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer time-series data and phenological information. The DHI was calculated independently, and then yield was obtained based on the DHI and net primary productivity (NPP). Based on the above results, we analyzed the spatial–temporal patterns of the rice cultivation area and yield in Northeast China (NEC) during 2000–2015. The results revealed that the methods established in this study can effectively support the yearly mapping of the rice area and yield in NEC, the average precisions of which exceed 90 and 80%, respectively. The rice planting areas are mainly located on the Sanjiang, Songnen and Liaohe plains, China, which are distributed along the Songhua and Liaohe rivers. The rice cultivation area and yield in this region increased significantly from 2000 to 2015, with increases of nearly 58 and 90%, respectively. The rice crop area and yield increased the fastest in Heilongjiang Province, China, whereas small changes occurred in Jilin and Liaoning provinces, China. Their gravity centers exhibited evident northward and eastward shifts, with offset distances of 107 and 358 km, respectively. Moreover, Heilongjiang Province has gradually become the new main rice production region. The methodologies used in this study provide a valuable reference for other related studies, and the spatial-temporal variation characteristics of the rice activities have raised new attention as to how these shifts affect national food security and resource allocation.

Seeds play a central role in the life cycle of plants. Seed hardness in pomegranates is of economic relevance, yet scarcely studied and poorly understood in China. In this study, we compared the proteomic differences between Zhongnonghong (soft-seeded) and Sanbai (hard-seeded) pomegranates. A total of 892 protein spots from both varieties were detected on two-dimensional electrophoresis gels (2-DE); 76 spots showed greater than a 1.5-fold or less than a 0.66-fold difference (P<0.05) in Zhongnonghong compared to Sanbai, of which 24 exhibited greater than a 2-fold change. Compared with Sanbai, Zhongnonghong possessed 14 up-regulated, and 10 down-regulated proteins. We identified and annotated 5 of these by using MALDI-TOF-TOF MS: pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) E1-β family protein (spot 4 609); alanine aminotransferase 2-like (ALT2L); mitochondrial glycine decarboxylase complex P-protein (spot 5 803); phosphofructokinase B (PfkB)-type family of carbohydrate kinase (spot 8 411); and putative dnaK-type molecular chaperone heat shock cognate protein 70 (Hsc70) (spot 9 006). Of these, 3 proteins (spots 4 609, 5 608, 5 803) were hypothesized to play a role in the formation of seed hardness. The other two proteins (spots 8 411, 9 006) were theorized to play a role in protecting the seeds from adverse stress during periods of fruit maturation. This study sets the foundation for further research on molecular mechanisms related to pomegranate seed hardness.