Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2011, Vol. 66 ›› Issue (11): 1451-1465.doi: 10.11821/xb201111002

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Temperature Variation in Recent 50 Years in the Three-River Headwaters Region of Qinghai Province

YI Xiangsheng1,2, YIN Yanyu3,4, LI Guosheng1, PENG Jingtao5   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    3. School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
    4. Key Laboratory of Regional Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
    5. School of Geographical sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
  • Received:2011-05-24 Revised:2011-07-21 Online:2011-11-20 Published:2011-11-20
  • Supported by:

    The National Science and Technology Support Plan,No.2009BAC61B01

Abstract: Based on the monthly average temperature data of 12 meteorological stations in the Three-River Headwaters Region of Qinghai Province from 1961 to 2010, the regional differences and abrupt changes of temperature variation were analyzed by the methods of moving average, linear trend analysis, spline interpolation, and Mann-Kendall test. Some important results were obtained in four aspects as follows. (1) The annual and seasonal average temperature in the Three-River Headwaters Region of Qinghai Province and its source regions was featured by several cold and warm fluctuations, but the average temperature had a significant rising trend at statistical significance level, especially since 2001. Spring, summer, autumn and annual average temperatures tended to be warm significantly since the 1990s and the winter average temperature exhibited a significant increasing trend since 2001. (2) The annual average temperature change tendency rate of the Three-River Headwaters Region of Qinghai Province was 0.36 oC 10a-1, while the annual average temperature change tendency rates of the Yellow River source region, the Lancangjiang River source region and the Yangtze River source region were 0.37 oC 10a-1, 0.37 oC 10a-1 and 0.34 oC 10a-1, respectively. The significant temperature increasing regions were observed in the south of Yushu County and the north of Nangqian County, and the temperature rising trends of winter and autumn were higher than those of spring and summer. (3) The annual, summer, autumn and winter average temperatures in the Three-River Headwaters Region, Lancangjiang River source region and Yangtze River source region as well as the summer and autumn average temperatures in the Yellow River source region had abrupt changes. The annual and summer average temperature abrupt changes were mainly observed in the late 1990s, while the autumn and winter average temperature abrupt changes mainly occurred in the early 1990s and early 21st century respectively. (4) In the background of global climate warming, altitude and underlying surface in different parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were the reasons for high temperature increasing rate in the Three-River Headwaters Region of Qinghai Province.

Key words: temperature variation, regional differences, abrupt changes analysis, Three-River Headwaters Region