Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Climate System in Northwest China

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Water Resources Research in Northwest China

Abstract

A comparative analysis for detecting temperature and precipitation changes in the period 1960–2010 was conducted using data from 74 meteorological stations in China’s arid northwest. Significant increasing trends (P < 0.01) were revealed through the investigation, showing rates of 0.343 °C/10a and 6.07 mm/10a, which is higher than the global average. The winter temperature rate increased 0.486 °C/10a, while the summer temperature changed at a rate of 0.232 °C/10a. However, although precipitation increased 2.51 mm/10a in summer, it slowed in winter to a rate of 1.16 mm/10a. Regionally, the highest increasing rates of temperature and precipitation occurred in northern Xinjiang, and the lowest rates were recorded in southern Xinjiang and the Hexi Corridor. We found that, among the four seasons, winter saw the greatest temperature changes. We also found that the winter temperature in this region had a strong association with the Siberian High (correlation coefficient: R = − 0.715) and greenhouse gas emissions (R = 0.51).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abouabdillah A, Oueslati O, De Girolamo AM, Lo Porto A (2010) Modeling the impact of climate change in a mediterranean catchment (Merguellil, Tunisia). Fresenius Environ Bull 19:2334–2347

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ashrafi K, Shafiepour M, Ghasemi L et al (2012) prediction of climate change induced temperature rise in regional scale using neural network. Int J Environ Res 6(3):677–688

    Google Scholar 

  • Bengtsson L (1997) The numerical simulation of climatic change. Ambio 26:58–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Beniston M, Rebetez M (1996) Regional behavior of minimum temperature in Switzerland for the period 1979–1993. Theor Appl Climatol 53:231–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briffa KR, Melvin TM, Vaganov EA, Grudd H et al (2008) Trends in recent temperature and radial tree growth spanning 2,000 years across northwest Eurasia. Philos Trans R Soc B 363:2271–2284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brohan P, Kennedy JJ, Harris I, Tett SFB, Jones PD (2006) Uncertainty estimates in regional and global observed temperature changes: a new data set from 1850. J. Geophys Res-Atmos 111:D12106. doi:10.1029/2005JD006548

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen ZQ, He YS, Yan JP (1984) Arid climate and the regulation of the hydrothermal resources in the Northwest China. J Desert Res 14(4):108–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley TJ (2000) Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years. Science 289(5477):270–277

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • D’Arrigo R, Jacoby G, Wilson R, Panagiotopoulos F (2005) A reconstructed Siberian High index since A.D.1599 from Eurasian and North American tree rings. Geophys Res Lett 32:L05705. doi:10.1029/2004GL022271

    Google Scholar 

  • Fang KY et al (2009) Drought variations in the eastern part of northwest China over the past two centuries: evidence from tree rings. Clim Res 38:129–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritts HC (1976) Tree rings and climate. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gong DY, Ho CH (2002) The Siberian High and climate change over middle to high latitude Asia. Theor Appl Climatol 72(1–2):1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo J (2010) Research on the effects of climate change on water cycle and water resources. Wuhan University, Ph. D. Thesis

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasanean HM, Basset HA (2006) Variability of summer temperature over Egypt. Int J Climatol 26:1619–1634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He YQ, Lu AG, Zhang ZL, Pang HX, Gu J (2005) Seasonal variation of regional warming-up structure across China in the past half century. Clim Res 28:213–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes JA, Cook ER, Yang B (2009) Climate change over the past 2,000 years in western China. Quat Int 194:91–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. In: Solomon S et al (ed) Contribution of working group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 996

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiang FQ, Li XM, Wei BG, Hu RJ (2009) Observed trends of heating and cooling degree-days in Xinjiang Province, China. Theor Appl Climatol 97:349–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Q, Liu Y, Cai QF, Sun JV et al (2006) Reconstruction of annual precipitation since 1686 A. D. from Ningwu region, ShanxiI province. Quat Sci 26(6):999–1006

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li QH, Chen YN, Shen YJ et al (2011) Spatial and temporal trends of climate change in Xinjiang, China[J]. J Geogr Sci 21(6):1007–1018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li BF, Chen YN, Shi X, Chen ZS, Li WH (2012a) Temperature and precipitation changes in different environments in the arid region of northwest China. Theor Appl Climatol, doi:10.1007/s00704-012-0753–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Li BF, Chen YN, Shi X (2012b) Why does the temperature rise faster in the arid region of northwest China? J Geophys Res 117:D16115. doi:10.1029/2012 JD017953

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Dongliang, Peng Suqin, Yao Hui (1995) The climate characteristics of winter mean temperature in northwestern China. Atmospheric Sci 19(22):192–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Li D, Wei L, Cai Y et al (2003) The present facts and the future tendency of the climate change in Northwest China. J Glaciol Geocryol 25(2):135–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu X, Yin ZY, Shao X, Qin N (2006) Temporal trends and variability of daily maximum and minimum, extreme temperature events, and growing season length over the eastern and central Tibetan Plateau during 1961–2003. J Geophys Res 111:D19109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Linderholm HW, Song H, Cai Q et al (2009) Temperature variations recorded in Pinus tabulaeformis tree rings from the southern and northern slopes of the central Qinling Mountains, central China. Boreas 38:285–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu AG (2009) Impacts of global warming change on patterns of temperature in China. J Mt Sci 6:405–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahlstein I, Knutti R (2010) Regional climate change patterns identified by cluster analysis. Clim Dynam 35(4):587–600

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mariotti L, Coppola E, Sylla M B, et al.(2011) Regional climate model simulation of projected 21st century climate change over an all-Africa domain: Comparison analysis of nested and driving model results[J]. J Geophys Res Atmos 116 (D15, 16)

    Google Scholar 

  • Moberg A, Sonechkin DM, Holmgren K, Datsenko NM et al (2005) Highly variable northern hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low- and high-resolution proxy data. Nature 433:613–617

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moriondo M, Bindi M, Fagarazzi C et al (2011) Framework for high-resolution climate change impact assessment on grapevines at a regional scale. Reg Environ Chang 11(3):553–567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panagiotopoulos F, Shahgedanova M, Hannachi A, Stephenson DB (2005) Observed trends and teleconnections of the Siberian high: a recently declining center of action. J Clim 18(9):1411–1422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierce DW, Barnett TP, Santer BD et al (2009) Selecting global climate models for regional climate change studies[J]. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106(21):8441–8446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehman S (2009) Study of Saudi Arabian climatic conditions using Hurst exponent and climatic predictability index. Chaos Soliton Fract 39(2):499–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehman SFQ (2010) Temperature and rainfall variation over Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, (1970–2006). Int J Climatol 30:445–449

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehman S, Siddiqi AH (2009) Wavelet based hurst exponent and fractal dimensional analysis of Saudi climatic dynamics. Chaos Soliton Fract 40(3):1081–1090

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren GY, Xu MZ, Chu ZY, Guo J, Li QX, Liu XN, Wang Y (2005) Changes of surface air temperature in China during 1951–2004 (In Chinese with English abstract). Clim Envir Res 10(4):717–727

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruelland D, Ardoinbardin S, Billen G et al (2008) Sensitivity of a lumped and semi-distributed hydrological model to several methods of rainfall interpolation on a large basin in West Africa. J Hydrol 361(1/2):96–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shi YF, Shen YP, Hu RJ (2002) Preliminary study on signal, impact and foreground of climatic shift from warm-dry to warm-humid in Northwest China. J Glaciol Geocryol 24(3):219–226

    Google Scholar 

  • Shi YF, Shen YP, Li DL (2003) Discussion on the present climate change from warm-dry to warm-wet in northwest China. Quat Sci 23(2):152–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Shi YF, Shen YP, Kang E, Li DL, Ding YJ, Zhang GW, Hu RJ (2007) Recent and future climate change in northwest china. Clim Chang 80(3–4):379–393

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shi YF, Zhang XS (1995) Impact of climate-change on surface-water resource and tendency, in the future in the arid zone of Northwestern China. Sci China 38(11):1395–1408

    Google Scholar 

  • Segev U (2010) Regional patterns of ant-species richness in an arid region: the importance of climate and biogeography. J Arid Environ 74(6):646–652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stahlschmidt ZR, DeNardo DF, Holland JN, Kotler BP, Kruse-peeples M (2011) Tolerance mechanisms in North American deserts: Biological and societal approaches to climate change. J Arid Environ 75(8):681–687

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan C (2001) The potential for calculating a meaningful water poverty index. Water Int 26(4):471–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun F, Roderick ML, Farquhar GD, Lim WH, Zhang Y, Bennett N, Roxburgh SH (2010) Partitioning the variance between space and time. Geophys Res Lett 37:L12704. doi:10.1029/2010GL043323

    Google Scholar 

  • Tebaldi C, Smith RL, Nychka D et al (2005) Quantifying uncertainty in projections of regional climate change: A Bayesian approach to the analysis of multimodel ensembles[J]. J Clim 18(10):1524–1540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vuille M, Bradley RS (2003) 20th century climate change in the tropical Andes: observations and model results. Clim Chang 59:75–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang SU, Ye JL, Gong DY (1998) Climate in China during the Little Ice Age. Quat Sci 1:54–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang JS, Fei XL, Wei F (2008) Further study of temperature change in northwest China in recent 50 years. J Desert Res 28(4):724–732

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xu Y, Ding YH, Zhao ZC (2003) Scenario of temperature and precipitation changes in Northwest China due to human activity in the 21~ (st) Century. J Glaciol Geocryol 23(5):327–330

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang B (2003) Climate history of the Tibetan plateau during the last two millennia. Adv Earth Sci 18(2):285–291

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang Y, Chen Y, Li W, Yu S, Wang M (2012) Climatic change of inland river basin in arid area: a case study in northern Xinjiang, China. Theor Appl Clim 107:143–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan YJ, Xie GH, Wei WS, Zhang JB (2005) Similarities and differences between summer temperature changes in Tianshan mountainous region and southern and northern Xinjiang. Meteorol Sci Technol 33(2):152–155

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang LY, Jiang ZL (1992) The genesis of the arid climate of northwestern China. Arid Land Geogr 15(2):1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang XG, Li XQ (1982) Some characteristics of temperature variation in China in the present century. Acta Meteorol Sin 20(2):198–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Q, Hu YQ, Cao XY et al (2000) On some problems of arid climate system of Northwest China. J Desert Res 20(4):357–362

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Q, CJ Zhang CJ, Bai HX, Lin L, Sun LD, Liu DX, Wang JS, Zhao HY (2010a) New development of climate change in Northwest China and its impact on arid environment. J Arid Meteorol 28(1):1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang XQ, Sun Y, Mao WF, Liu YY, Ren Y (2010b) Regional response of temperature change in the arid regions of China to global warming. Arid Zone Res 27(4):592–599

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang, Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Yaning Chen & Baofu Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, School of Resources and Environmental Science, Xinjiang University, No.14 Shengli Road, 830046, Urumqi, China

    Changchun Xu

Authors
  1. Yaning Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Baofu Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Changchun Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yaning Chen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang, Xinjiang, China

    Yaning Chen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Chen, Y., Li, B., Xu, C. (2014). Climate System in Northwest China. In: Chen, Y. (eds) Water Resources Research in Northwest China. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8017-9_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation