Soil moisture change and its response to climate change in cropland on the Loess Plateau
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DOI:10.7606/j.issn.1000-7601.2012.03.40
Key Words: soil moisture  climate change  cropland  response  temperature  precipitation  the Loess Plateau
Author NameAffiliation
JIANG Chong College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China 
WANG Fei College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
Institute of Soil and Water Conseration, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China 
MU Xingmin College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
Institute of Soil and Water Conseration, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China 
HOU Qunqun College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China 
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Abstract:
      We analyzed the temporal evolution tendency characteristics of temperature, precipitation and soil mois-ture on the Loess Plateau of China and the response of soil moisture to climate change(mainly about temperature and pre-cipitation)by using annual and monthly meteorological data of 91 meteorological stations within and around the Loess Plateau from 1961-2010 and the soil moisture data from 4 agricultural meteorological stations from 1992-2011. The major methods were linear trend analysis and correlation analysis. The results indicated that:(1)The precipitation on the Locss Plateau in recent 50 years deelined gradually, while the temperature increased gradually. The geographieal dis-tribution characteristics of rean annual preeipitation(temperature)was that the southern part was higher than northern part, the eastem part was higher than the southern part.The temperature and precipitation descended from southeast to northwest gradually, which was determined by altitude and tertain. Semiarid and semihumid area had overall southward trend. (2)The change of different year’s climate, environment conditions leaded to the change of top 50 cm soil mois-ture condition in Xifeng, Changzhi, Yanan, Suide among different years. (3)Soil moisture had a negative feedback to temperature but it had a positive feedback to precipitation. Temperature and preeipitation changes were the main reasons of variation of soil moisture on the Loess Plateau. (4)In a case study of Xifeng, the climate change trend and its effect on soil moisture, as well as the evolution of soil moisture were analyzed. During the period between 1991 and 2010, in terms of topsoil moisture, it negatively correlated with temperature but precipitation positively correlated with it. While in terms of the deep soil, the correlation relationship between soil moisture and temperature, precipitation varied depending on the seasons. On the scale of month, soil moisture had a response to climate. There was a negative correlation relation-ship between temperature and soil moisture, some of them had reached significant level.Actually soil moisture had no obvious response to precipitation, but reached significant level in some months.