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Spatiotemporal properties of growing season indices during 1961–2010 and possible association with agroclimatological regionalization of dominant crops in Xinjiang, China

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Abstract

Variations of frost days and growing season length (GSL) have been drawing increasing attention due to their impact on agriculture. The Xinjiang region in China is climatically an arid region and plays an important role in agriculture development. In this study, the GSL and frost events are analyzed in both space and time, based on the daily minimum, mean and maximum air surface temperature data covering a period of 1961–2010. Results indicate that: (1) a significant lengthening of GSL is detected during 1961–2010 in Xinjiang, China. The increasing rate of GSL over Xinjiang is about 2.5 days per decade. Besides, the starting time of growing season is 0.7 days earlier per decade and the ending time is 1.6 days later per decade. Generally, GSL in southern Xinjiang has larger increasing magnitude when compared to other regions of Xinjiang; (2) longer GSL and larger changing magnitude of growing season start (GSS), growing season end (GSE) and GSL in southern Xinjiang implies higher sensitivity of the growing season response to climate warming. Besides, GSL is in close relation with latitude, and higher latitude usually corresponds to later start and earlier end of growing season, and hence shorter GSL. In general, a northward increase of 1° latitude triggers an 8-day delay of the starting time of growing season, 6-day advance of the ending time of growing season, and thus the GSL is 14 days shorter; (3) GSL under different rates can reflect light and heat resources over Xinjiang. The GSL related to 80 % guarantee rate is 5–14 days shorter than the long-term annual mean GSL; (4) Lengthening of GSL has the potential to increase agricultural production. However, negative influences by climate warming, such as enhanced evapotranspiration, increasing weeds, insects, and pathogen-mediated plant diseases, should also be considered in planning, management and development of agriculture in Xinjiang.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Xinjiang Science and Technology Planning Project (Grant No. 201331104), the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 51425903), the Leading Expert Project by Anhui Province and fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. CUHK441313). Our cordial gratitude will be extended to the editor, Prof. Dr. Rob Roebeling, and two anonymous reviewers for their professional and pertinent comments and suggestions, which are greatly helpful for further improvement of the quality of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing, 210013, China

    Hui Ci

  2. School of Civil Engineering and Environment, Suzhou University, Anhui, 234000, China

    Qiang Zhang

  3. Department of Water Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Qiang Zhang & Mingzhong Xiao

  4. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Water Security in Southern China of Guangdong High Education Institute, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Qiang Zhang & Mingzhong Xiao

  5. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Geo-simulation, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Qiang Zhang & Lin Liu

  6. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-2117, USA

    Vijay P. Singh

  7. Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-2117, USA

    Vijay P. Singh

  8. Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0131, USA

    Lin Liu

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  1. Hui Ci
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  2. Qiang Zhang
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Correspondence to Qiang Zhang.

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Responsible Editor: R. Roebeling.

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Ci, H., Zhang, Q., Singh, V.P. et al. Spatiotemporal properties of growing season indices during 1961–2010 and possible association with agroclimatological regionalization of dominant crops in Xinjiang, China. Meteorol Atmos Phys 128, 513–524 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-015-0419-8

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