Characteristics of the onset, cessation, and length of the rainy season in typical mountainous areas in China

Abstract

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 79:163-174 (2019) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01585 Characteristics of the onset, cessation, and length of the rainy season in typical mountainous areas in China Fei Xu1, 2, Yangwen Jia1,*, Cunwen Niu1, Jiajia Liu1, Chunfeng Hao1 1State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, PR China 2College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, PR China *Corresponding author: jiayangwen@163.com ABSTRACT: Variation in the onset, cessation, and length of the rainy season (ORS, CRS, and LRS, respectively) influences crop growth and food security. In this study, we used the cumulative precipitation anomaly method, spline interpolation, Mann-Kendall trend test, and linear regression to investigate the ORS, CRS, LRS, and rainfall amount during the rainy season (ARS), and their temporal trends, for the Taihang Mountains (THM), the Hengduan Mountains (HDM), and the Qian-Gui Karst Mountains (KSTM) in China from 1961-2013. The results showed that the rainy season began first in the KSTM, followed by the HDM and the THM. The coefficients of variation for the ORS, CRS, LRS, and ARS in the THM had the highest values of the 3 mountainous areas, and therefore agricultural production in the THM faces higher risks. From 1961-2013, both the ORS and CRS showed tendencies of becoming earlier, and ARS showed decreasing trends. The decreasing trend magnitudes for the LRS and ARS in the KSTM were the largest of the 3 typical mountainous regions. Furthermore, ORS occurred later, CRS occurred earlier, LRS became shorter, and ARS decreased significantly in the north of the KSTM compared to the south. The results of this study may aid planning and decision makers in making adequate preparations to prevent risks and failures, and may help farmers optimize their production activities. KEY WORDS: Rainy season · Trend analysis · Typical mountain area Full text in pdf format PreviousCite this article as: Xu F, Jia Y, Niu C, Liu J, Hao C (2019) Characteristics of the onset, cessation, and length of the rainy season in typical mountainous areas in China. Clim Res 79:163-174. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01585 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 79, No. 2. Online publication date: December 19, 2019 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2019 Inter-Research.