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Responses of tree-ring growth and crop yield to drought indices in the Shanxi province, North China

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Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the relationships among the tree-ring chronology, meteorological drought (precipitation), agricultural drought (Palmer Drought Severity Index PDSI), hydrological drought (runoff), and agricultural data in the Shanxi province of North China. Correlation analyses indicate that the tree-ring chronology is significantly correlated with all of the drought indices during the main growing season from March to July. Sign test analyses further indicate that the tree-ring chronology shows variation similar to that of the drought indices in both high and low frequencies. Comparisons of the years with narrow tree rings to the severe droughts reflected in all three indices from 1957 to 2008 reveal that the radial growth of the trees in the study region can accurately record the severe drought for which all three indices were in agreement (1972, 1999, 2000, and 2001). Comparisons with the dryness/wetness index indicate that tree-ring growth can properly record the severe droughts in the history. Correlation analyses among agricultural data, tree-ring chronology, and drought indices indicate that the per-unit yield of summer crops is relatively well correlated with the agricultural drought, as indicated by the PDSI. The PDSI is the climatic factor that significantly influences both tree growth and per-unit yield of summer crops in the study region. These results indicate that the PDSI and tree-ring chronology have the potential to be used to monitor and predict the yield of summer crops. Tree-ring chronology is an important tool for drought research and for wider applications in agricultural and hydrological research.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Bo Sun, Yanchao Wang, and Renyi He for their great help. This research is supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB833405), the West Light foundation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41023006, 40901060, 40890051), the fund of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-04), and the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology. This is a Sino–Swedish Tree-Ring Research Center (SISTRR) Contribution (025).

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  1. The State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, China

    Junyan Sun & Yu Liu

  2. Department of Environmental Science and Technology, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Yu Liu

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  1. Junyan Sun
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Correspondence to Yu Liu.

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Sun, J., Liu, Y. Responses of tree-ring growth and crop yield to drought indices in the Shanxi province, North China. Int J Biometeorol 58, 1521–1530 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-013-0757-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-013-0757-5

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