[en] It is widely recognized that the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and climate disasters have strongly increased with global warming. The area of influence of climate disasters has also increased, which has had adverse effects on sustainable social and economic development. Drought is a recurring natural phenomenon, and is associated with a deficit of water resources over a large geographic area and long duration. Drought is attracting increased attention from scholars, with a focus on its intensity, duration and areal extent in northern China within the context of global change. Investigation of the variation of drought and regional response to climate change is very important to agricultural production, and can provide a reference fordeveloping appropriate measures to reduce droughts on the Huang-Huai-Hai(3H) Plain. At present, relevant research is more inclined to study meteorological drought itself, without consideration of drought
characteristics in different phases in crop-growing seasons and the climate background of global change. In this paper, we determine drought characteristics in all four seasons and the winter wheat growing season on the 3H Plain, together with the effects of climate change. Based on data of 34 meteorological stations from 1961 to 2011, a relative moisture index was calculated to investigate the spatial pattern and temporal variability of drought characteristics on the 3H Plain. The results show varying degrees of drought in spring, winter and the winter wheat growing season. Drought frequency exceeded 90% over the past 50 years on the plain, with spring and winter the driest seasons. There were high-frequency drought areas in central and northern parts of the plain during spring, winter and the winter wheat growing season. The regional distribution
of drought intensity and frequency showed an increasing tendency from south to north. A wet trend was detected on the plain in the winter wheat growing season over the last 50 years. However, the relative moisture index changed since 1978. That is to say, the index had an increasing trend from 1961 to 1980 when the plain was wetter; the index decreased from 1980 to
2011 when it was drier. Overall, although drought eased over the entire analysis period, a serious drought tendency has emerged over the last 20 years. In addition, temporal variability of the relative moisture index was significantly correlated with precipitation, solar radiation and relative humidity. This indicates that drought characteristics of the plain were more sensitive to these three climate variables. This has received increased attention in recent years with respect to addressing
climate change. The results of our study indicate an arid trend, with increase of temperature in spring and summer on the 3H Plain. Therefore, relevant agencies should create an early warning system of extreme weather events and natural disasters, toward improvement of future regional agricultural scientific management and decision support systems in agricultural production. These agencies should also adapt to climate change by selecting strongly drought-resistant crop
varieties and by adjusting cultivation methods and management measures, especially irrigation measures aimed at spring drought on the 3H Plain.
Disciplines :
Agriculture & agronomy
Author, co-author :
Xu, Jianwen; State Key Engineering Laboratory of Crops Efficient Water Use and Drought Mitigation, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing 100081, China ; Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China
Ju, Hui; State Key Engineering Laboratory of Crops Efficient Water Use and Drought Mitigation, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing 100081, China ; Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China
Yang, Jianying ✱; State Key Engineering Laboratory of Crops Efficient Water Use and Drought Mitigation, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing 100081, China ; Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China
✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.
Language :
English
Title :
Variation of drought and regional response to climate change in Huang-Huai鄄-Hai Plain
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. Read more
Save & Close
Accept all
Decline all
Show detailsHide details
Cookie declaration
About cookies
Strictly necessary
Performance
Strictly necessary cookies allow core website functionality such as user login and account management. The website cannot be used properly without strictly necessary cookies.
This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.
Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor.
Used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Websites use cookies to help users navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. Cookies that are required for the website to operate properly are allowed to be set without your permission. All other cookies need to be approved before they can be set in the browser.
You can change your consent to cookie usage at any time on our Privacy Policy page.