Variations in droughts over China: 1951–2003

Abstract

The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) was calculated by using monthly air temperature and precipitation in China during the period 1951 to 2003. For the country as a whole, there are no long‐term upward or downward trends in the percentage areas of droughts (defined as PDSI < −1.0). However, significant increases of drought areas are found in North China. Most northern China (except western Northwest China) has experienced severe and prolonged dry periods since the late 1990s, when in some of the areas the extreme drought situations were unprecedented during the period of study. Since these regions are relatively dry areas, frequent drought stress in recent decades has become more serious.

Drought reconstruction for North Central China from tree rings: the value of the Palmer drought severity index

“…The most severe drought epoch since 1788 A.D. occurred in the late-1920s, which was followed by the wettest period of the past 200 years in the mid-1930s. On the basis of the available meteorological records or PDSI data, many studies have evidenced a drying trend in central, north and northeast China since the 1950s (Wang and Zhou, 2005;Zou et al, 2005). Our reconstruction is in basic agreement with this assessment.…”

“…In 2001, the worst drought since 1990 hit this and surrounding areas, leaving million hectares of land parched and millions of people and livestock short of drinking water (People's Daily, 31 May, 2001). The occurrence of this drought may be part of a larger-scale drying trend in central, north and northeast China since the 1950s (Wang and Zhou, 2005;Zou et al, 2005). Furthermore, recent studies indicate that the increasing intensity of global warming may contribute to the development of more frequent and persistent droughts (Cook et al, 2004;Dai et al, 2004;Trenberth et al, 2004).…”

“…The Palmer drought severity index (PDSI; Palmer, 1965) is a widely used meteorological drought index across the United States and for much of the globe (Briffa et al, 1994;Cook et al, 1999;Heim, 2002;Lloyd-Hughes and Saunders, 2002;Ntale and Gan, 2003;Cook et al, 2004;Dai et al, 2004;Zou et al, 2005;D'Arrigo et al, 2006;van der Schrier et al, 2006). It was developed by Palmer (1965) as a means to measure moisture conditions by incorporating antecedent precipitation, soil moisture demand and supply into a primitive hydrological accounting system.…”

Classification and regression tree (CART) for analysis of soybean yield variability among fields in Northeast China: The importance of phosphorus application rates under drought conditions

“…over wide areas including Northeast China (Dai et al, 2004;Zou et al, 2005;Schiermeier, 2008) and threatens global food security (Ciais et al, 2005;IPCC, 2007). This emphasizes the urgent need to examine factors contributing to field to field yield variability under drought conditions.…”

A tree-ring-based reconstruction of the Yimin River annual runoff in the Hulun Buir region, Inner Mongolia, for the past 135 years

“…Most parts of China have suffered from severe and prolonged droughts in recent years [1], particularly the extreme four-year drought extending from 1999 to 2002. These droughts have caused large economic and societal losses [2].…”