| To reveal the rules of changes in seeding time and planting pattern of spring maize, based on the daily temperature data of 7 meteorological stations in Altai region during 1961—2010, the spatiotemporal changes of the first date, final date, duration, and accumulated temperature were analyzed when the temperature reached 10℃ or higher, using the methods of linear regression, accumulative anomaly, T-test and Kriging based mixed interpolation. The results showed that accumulated temperature, duration, first date, and final date, all showed a significant increasing tendency in recent 50 years, with the rates of 57.1 ℃·10a-1, 1.6 d·10a-1, 1.3 d·10a-1, 0.3 d·10a-1, respectively. All changes took place in mid 90 s. Climate warming resulted in 3～8 day advance of seeding time and 6～11 day delay of the growth of spring maize. Before the climate change, east Qinghe region was not suitable for the cultivation of spring corn, nor the late maturing cultivars due to the incapability or the high risks in planting. With the climate warming, planting areas for different varieties of spring corn gradually expanded eastward, and the cultivar maturities in different counties and cities showed variations. The results showed that regions that were not suitable for planting now were capable of planting early mature cultivars, regions that were planted with early mature cultivars were good for mid-season/late mature ones, and regions that used to have mid-season/late mature varieties were now to have planted with late varieties. |