Abstract
The climate in desert is totally different from those in other landscapes. This paper, by analyzing the data collected in Minqin desert area during the period of 1961-2009, attempts to figure out how the temperature, precipitation and air humidity in the desert area of northwestern China respond to global warming. The result revealed that: the increasing rate of the mean annual temperature in Minqin during 1961-2009 was greater than that of the global average and that of the hundred-year average in China; whereas lower than that in the arid area in northeastern China in the recent 20 years. In Minqin, the temperatures in winter and spring rose significantly. The winter and spring temperatures and the annual maximum temperature showed big variations, with great fluctuations. The annual air humidity increased dramatically while the precipitation displayed an insignificant increasing trend. There was a significant correlation between air humidity rising and precipitation increasing. However, there’s no sound consistency between the periodic variations of air humidity and those of precipitation. The warmer spring usually induced intensive sandstorms, and the instability of air temperatures has caused yield reduction of crops/ fruits in the study area.
Highlights
Global warming is a hot topic worldwide
The 4th evaluation report by IPCC showed that from 1906 to 2005, the average air temperature in the world rose by 0.74°C, and the average temperature in the latter half of the 20th century was the highest in the last 1300 years (IPCC, 2007)
Linear regression was used to express the variation trends of average temperature, the maximum/minimum temperatures, precipitation and air humidity, and the regression significance was tested with 95% confidence level
Summary
The 3rd evaluation report by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) indicated that the world’s average temperature in the 20th centaury rose by 0.6±0.2°C, with the warmest period appearing in1980s and 1990s (Houghton et al, 2001). The 4th evaluation report by IPCC showed that from 1906 to 2005, the average air temperature in the world rose by 0.74°C, and the average temperature in the latter half of the 20th century was the highest in the last 1300 years (IPCC, 2007). The temperature rose more dramatically in the 20th century than at any other time in the millennium and the average temperature from1990 to 1999 was the highest in the millennium (Mann et al, 1999; Qin et al., 2002). Global warming during the 20th centaury draws more and more attention in recent years
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