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Changes of temperature extremes for 1960–2004 in Far-West China

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Abstract

The spatial and temporal patterns of the temperature extremes defined by 5th and 95th percentiles based on daily maximum/minimum temperature dataset were analyzed using Mann–Kendall test and linear regression method. The research results indicate that: (1) the seasonal minimum temperature is in stronger increasing trend than the seasonal maximum temperature; (2) in comparison with the changes of the maximum temperature, more stations display significantly increasing trends of minimum temperature in frequency and intensity; (3) comparatively, more stations have significantly decreasing trends in the intra-seasonal extreme temperature anomaly in summer and winter than in spring and autumn. The areal mean minimum temperature is in stronger increasing trend than areal mean maximum temperature; (4) the warming process in the Far-West (FW) China is characterized mainly by significantly increasing minimum temperature. The research will be helpful for local human mitigation to alterations in water resource and ecological environment in FW China due to changes of temperature extremes, as the ecologically fragile region of China.

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Acknowledgments

The research was financially supported by innovative project from Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, CAS (Grant No.: CXNIGLAS200814), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 40701015), the Outstanding Overseas Chinese Scholars Fund from CAS (The Chinese Academy of Sciences) and by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. CUHK4627/05H). Thanks should be extended to the National Climate Center of China for providing the climatic data. Our cordial thanks should be extended to two anonymous reviewers and the editor, Prof. Dr. George Christakos, for their valuable comments and suggestions which greatly improved the quality of this paper.

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Correspondence to Qiang Zhang.

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Zhang, Q., Xu, CY., Zhang, Z. et al. Changes of temperature extremes for 1960–2004 in Far-West China. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 23, 721–735 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-008-0252-4

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