干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

China is the third largest Country (after Russia and Canada) extending from the West Pacific Ocean to the Tibet plateau, where the climate ranges from the monsoonal regime in the east to the extreme dryness in the west, and from tropical in the south to subarctic in the north.

Traditionally, a large part of the population is dedicated to the agriculture, with a high percentage continuously migrating towards the industrial coastal areas. In this perspective, water represents a precious resource for living, industries and farming, and its scarcity, due to climate changes and variability, is an overwhelming problem for the entire community. Therefore it is fundamental to have a clear picture of the climate changes and trends undergoing in different regions of this vast and varied country. Moreover, understanding the climate variability in China will certainly give important hints on the trends of the vegetation, and, therefore, on the role of Chinese ecosystems in the global carbon cycle and global climate change, while the assessment of the impact of land-use changes on the local and regional climate will help in adaptation strategies.

In this paper we present results on the climate analysis in selected regions, and on the climate variability affecting the water cycle and the land productivity.