Impact of Climate Change on the Water Requirements of Oat in Northeast and North China

Abstract

Crop water requirements are directly affected by climatic variability, especially for crops grown in the areas which are sensitive to climatic change. Based on the SIMETAW model and a long-term meteorological dataset, we evaluated the spatiotemporal variations of climatic change impacts on water requirement of oat in North and Northeast China. The results indicated that effective rainfall showed an increasing trend, while the crop water requirement and irrigation demand presented decreasing trends over the past decades. The water requirement of oat showed significant longitudinal and latitudinal spatial variations, with a downtrend from north to south and uptrend from east to west. Climatic factors have obviously changed in the growth season of oat, with upward trends in the average temperature and precipitation, and downward trends in the average wind speed, sunshine hours, relative humidity, and solar radiation. Declines in solar radiation and wind speed, accompanied with the increase in effective rainfall, have contributed to the reduced crop water requirement over these decades. Given the complex dynamic of climate change, when studying the impact of climate change on crop water requirements, we should not only consider single factors such as temperature or rainfall, we need to analyze the comprehensive effects of various climatic factors.

Keywords

• climate change
• crop water requirement
• temporal and spatial variations
• oat
• Northeast and North China