Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Variations and trends of onset, cessation and length of climatic growing season over Xinjiang, NW China

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Theoretical and Applied Climatology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this study, we assess spatial patterns of variations and trends of onset, cessation, and length of growing season using mean air temperature data recorded at 51 stations in Xinjiang province, NW China over the period 1959–2008. Rank-based Mann–Kendall trend test and linear regression method are used to detect the significance and the magnitude of growing season change, respectively. Regionally, the average onset of the growing season has shifts 5.3 days earlier while the average ending date has moved 7.1 days later, increasing the length of the growing season by an average of 12.6 days. This study reveals a quite different result from previous studies. While the lengthening of the growing season in Xinjiang in the past 50 years is similar to that of previous studies, we find that the lengthening can be mainly attributed to delay of cessation in autumn rather than advance of onset in spring. The extended growing season will have strong implications in regional agricultural production of Xinjiang.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bradley BA, Mustard JF (2008) Comparison of phenology trends by land cover class: a case study in the Great Basin, USA. Glob Chang Biol 14:334–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter TR (1998) Changes in the thermal growing season in Nordic countries during the past century and prospects for the future. Agric Food Sci Finl 7:161–179

    Google Scholar 

  • Chmielewski F-M, Rötzer T (2002) Annual and spatial variability of the beginning of growing season in Europe in relation to air temperature changes. Clim Res 19:257–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dai XG, Ren YY, Cheng HW (2007) Multi-scale feature of climate and climate shift in Xinjiang over the past 50 years. Acta Meteorol Sin 65(6):1003–1010, in Chinese

    Google Scholar 

  • Feng S, Hu Q (2004) Changes in agro-meteorological indicators in the contiguous United States: 1951–2000. Theor Appl Climatol 78:247–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng S, Hu Q, Qian WH (2004) Quality control of daily meteorological data in China, 1951–2000: a new dataset. Int J Climatol 24:853–870

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forland EJ, Skaugen TE, Benestad RE, Hanssen-Bauer I, Tveito OE (2004) Variations in thermal growing, heating, and freezing indices in the nordic arctic, 1900–2050. Arctic Antarctic Alpine Research 36:347–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ge QS, Zheng JY, Zhang XX, Hao ZX (2003) The change of climate and phenology in the past 40 years. Prog Nat Sci 13(10):1048–1052 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamed KH, Rao AR (1998) A modified Mann–Kendall trend test for autocorrelated data. J Hydrol 204:182–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2007) The fourth assessment report: climate change 2007. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones PD, Briffa KR (1995) Growing season temperatures over the former Soviet Union. Int J Climatol 15:943–959

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kadioglu M, Saylan L (2001) Trends of growing degree-days in Turkey. Water Air Soil Pollut 126:83–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karlsen SR, Solheim I, Beck PSA, Hogda KA, Wielgolaski FE, Tommervik H (2007) Variability of the start of the growing season in Fennoscandia, 1982–2002. International Journal of Biometeorology 51:513–524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kruger AC, Shongwe S (2004) Temperature trends in South Africa: 1960–2003. Int J Climatol 24:1929–1945

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Yan ZW (2009) Homogenized daily mean/maximum/minimum temperature series for China from 1960–2008. Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters 2(4):1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Linderholm HW (2006) Growing season changes in the last century. Agric For Meteorol 137:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Linderholm HW, Walther A, Chen D (2008) Twentieth-century trends in the thermal growing season in the Great Baltic Area. Clim Change 87:405–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu DX, Dong AX, Lu DR (2005) Climatic change of northwest China and its influence on agricultural production in recent 43 years. Agricultural Research in the Arid Areas 23(2):195–201, in Chinese

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu X, Yin Z, 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. doi:10.1029/2005JD006915

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu BH, Henderson M, Zhang YD, Xu M (2010) Spatiotemporal change in China’s climatic growing season: 1955–2000. Climatic Change 99:93–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupikasza EB, Hansel S, Matschullat J (2010) Regional and seasonal variability of extreme precipitation trends in southern Poland and central-eastern Germany 1951–2006. Int J Climatol. doi:10.1002/joc.2229

    Google Scholar 

  • Menzel A, Fabian P (1999) Growing season extended in Europe. Nature 397:659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menzel A, Jakobi G, Ahas R, Scheifinger H, Estrella N (2003) Variations of the climatological growing season (1951–2000) in Germany compared with other countries. Int J Climatol 23:793–812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mix K, Rast W, Lopes VL (2009) Increases in growing degree days in the Alpine Desert of the San Luis Valley, Colorado. Water Air Soil Pollut. doi:10.1007/s1270-009-0074-0

    Google Scholar 

  • Moonen AC, Ercoli L, Mariotti M, Masoni A (2002) Climate change in Italy indicated by agrometeorological indices over 122 years. Agric For Meteorol 111:13–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partal T, Ercan K (2006) Trend analysis in Turkish precipitation data. Hydrol Process 20:2011–2026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson TC, Folland CK (2000) Climate change detection: what can a small working group do about it? CLIVAR Exchanges 5:24–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Qian W, Xiang L (2004) Regional trends in recent temperature indices in China. Clim Res 27:119–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robeson SM (2002) Increasing growing-season length in Illinois during the 20th century. Clim Change 52:219–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz MD, Ahas R, Anto A (2005) Onset of spring starting earlier across the Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology 12:343–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Serrano S, Mateos VL, Garcia JA (1999) Trend analysis of monthly precipitation over the Iberian Peninsula for the period 1921–1995. Physics Chemistry of the Earth (B) 24(1–2):85–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Skaggs RH, Baker DG (1985) Fluctuations in the length of the growing season in Minnesota. Clim Change 7:403–414

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song YL, Linderholm HW, Chen DL, Walther A (2009) Trends of the thermal growing season in China, 1951–2007. Int J Climatol. doi:10.1002/joc.1816

    Google Scholar 

  • Walther A, Linderholm HW (2006) A comparison of growing season indices for the Great Baltic Area. Int J Biometeorol 51:107–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walther GR, Post E, Convey P, Menzel A, Parmesan C, Beebee TJC, Fromentin JM, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Bairlein F (2002) Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature 416:389–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang YG, Ai WX (1997) Analysis and forecast of ≥10°C effective accumulated temperature (EAT) in Northeast China. Chinese Agricultural Meteorology 18(3):39–44, in Chinese

    Google Scholar 

  • White MA, Running SW, Thornton PE (1999) The impact of growing-season length variability on carbon assimilation and evapotranspiration over 88 years in the eastern US deciduous forest. Int J Biometeorol 42:139–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu DY (1989) Agricultural climatic resources and their zoning in Xinjiang. Meteorological Press (in Chinese), Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu CH, Xu Y, Luo Y (2008) Analysis on potential climate change in Xinjiang in 21 century. Meteorology of Desert and Oasis 2(3):1–7, in Chinese

    Google Scholar 

  • Yue S, Pilon P (2004) A comparison of the power of the t test, Mann–Kendall and bootstrap for trend detection. Hydrol Sci J 49(1):21–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang HX, Zhang Y (1994) Preliminary discussion on the response of active accumulated temperature of china to climate warming. Acta Geogr Sin 49(1):27–36, in Chinese

    Google Scholar 

  • Zheng JY, Ge QS, Hao ZX (2002) The effect of climate change on phenology in the recent 40 years over China. Chin Sci Bull 47(20):1582–1586 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

The work of this paper was financially supported by the Chinese National Basic Research Key Project (grant no.: 2010CB951001) and National Scientific and Technological Support Program of China (grant no.: 2007BAC03A0604). The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their invaluable suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830011, China

    Feng-qing Jiang, Ru-ji Hu, Yan-wei Zhang, Xue-mei Li & Li Tong

  2. Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology and Desert Environment, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830011, China

    Feng-qing Jiang

Authors
  1. Feng-qing Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ru-ji Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yan-wei Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xue-mei Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Li Tong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feng-qing Jiang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jiang, Fq., Hu, Rj., Zhang, Yw. et al. Variations and trends of onset, cessation and length of climatic growing season over Xinjiang, NW China. Theor Appl Climatol 106, 449–458 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0445-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0445-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation