The Taihang Mountain Region of North China is Experiencing A Significant Warming Trend

Tonggang Fu, Hongzhu Liang, Hui Gao and Jintong Liu
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Tonggang Fu: Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Laboratory of Agricultural Water-Saving, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021, China
Hongzhu Liang: Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Laboratory of Agricultural Water-Saving, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021, China
Hui Gao: Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Laboratory of Agricultural Water-Saving, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021, China
Jintong Liu: Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Laboratory of Agricultural Water-Saving, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: The Earth’s climate has warmed by approximately 0.6 °C over the last century, but temperature change in the Taihang Mountain region—an important transition zone in North China which functions as an ecological barrier for Beijing, Tianjin, and other big cities—is still unknown. In this study, we analyze the spatial and temporal trends in the average annual and seasonal surface air temperature in the Taihang Mountain region from 1968 to 2017. The effect of elevation, longitude, latitude, percent forestland, percent farmland, and gross domestic product (GDP) on temperature was also determined. Our results show that the Taihang Mountain has warmed by 0.3 °C/decade over the past five decades. Partitioned seasonally, average warming was 0.38, 0.14, 0.21, and 0.47 °C/decade in spring, summer, fall, and winter, respectively. Elevation and latitude were significantly negatively correlated with temperature but had no correlation with the temporal warming trend (i.e., the Z value from a Mann–Kendall test). The Z value was significantly negatively correlated with percent forestland and positively correlated with GDP, indicating that economic development has induced warming, but afforestation may reduce the rate of warming increase. Together, our results provide important insights into the rates and drivers of climate change within mountainous regions.

Keywords: climate change; mann–kendall test; gross domestic product; regional warming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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