Asymmetric Soil Warming under Global Climate Change

Hui Zhang, Binhui Liu, Daowei Zhou, Zhengfang Wu and Ting Wang
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Hui Zhang: School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China
Binhui Liu: College of Forestry, The Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Daowei Zhou: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Zhengfang Wu: School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China
Ting Wang: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Daily surface soil temperature data from 360 weather stations in China during 1962–2011 were retrieved and analyzed. The data revealed two aspects of asymmetric soil warming. Firstly, there was asymmetry between day and night in terms of increases in soil temperature. The daily maximum surface soil temperature ( S T max ) and daily minimum surface soil temperature ( S T min ) increased at rates of 0.031 and 0.055 °C/year over the 50-year interval, respectively. As a consequence of the more rapid increases in S T min , the soil diurnal temperature range (SDTR) decreased at most stations (average rate of –0.025 °C/year), with the most profound decrease in winter (–0.08 °C/year). The solar duration (SD) was positively related to SDTR and is regarded as the key underlying cause of the decreasing SDTR. Secondly, there was asymmetry between the soil and air in the temperature increase. The differences between soil and air temperature ( T D ) were highest in summer (2.76 °C) and smallest in winter (1.55 °C), which decreased by 0.3 °C over the study interval, this meant agricultural practice plans based on air temperature alone may be severely limited. The difference between soil temperature and air temperature reduces at night. This would facilitate the wintering of perennials in areas near the zero-contour line.

Keywords: asymmetric; soil temperature; SDTR; increase; decrease (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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