Impacts of Climate Change on Rice Yield in China From 1961 to 2010 Based on Provincial Data

Abstract

The impacts of climate change on rice yield in China from 1961 to 2010 were studied in this paper, based on the provincial data, in order to develop scientific countermeasures. The results indicated that increase of average temperature improved single cropping rice production on national level by up to 11% relative to the average over the study period, however, it resulted in an overall loss of double cropping rice by up to 1.9%. The decrease of diurnal temperature range (DTR) in the major producing regions caused the decrease by up to 3.0% for single cropping rice production and 2.0% for double cropping rice production. Moreover, the contribution of precipitation change reached about 6.2% for single cropping rice production, but no significant effect for double cropping rice production in recent 50 years.