Climate change in the Sanjiang Plain disturbed by large-scale reclamation

Abstract

Up to 1949, wetlands stretched continuously and accounted for 80.17% of the total area of plain part of the Sanjiang Plain. However, wetlands in the plain have gone through 4 periods (1956–1960, 1960–1977, 1980–1986, 1986-the present) of large-scale reclamation from 1956 to the present. Over 50% wetlands had changed into agricultural fields. The underlying surface of the plain has changed tremendously. This study investigated the regional climate change by analyzing regional climatic variation and tendency and examining climate jumps over the last 45 years. Monthly records of 5 climatic factors (air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, sunshine time and wind speed) for 26 meteorological stations covering the period 1955–1999 were used. The annual mean temperature of the study region was tending to go up and increased by 1.2–2.3 °C during the last 45 years. The maximum of annual precipitation decrease in the region was 90 mm over the last 45 years. An abrupt warming of the annual mean temperature occurred in the mid-1980s, which had an increase amplitude of 0.9 °C. Of increase amplitudes of all the seasonal abrupt warming, the largest one was 1.8 °C in the winter since 1987. The plain used to be cold and humid with center of Heilongjiang province even till the late 1960s, for it had an underlying surface of wetlands in the main. However, based on the facts of the climate changes of the plain over the last 45 years, it is held that the plain had a larger warming amplitude than that of area around it in recent years probably resulted from the large-scale reclamation of various kinds of wetlands.