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High-spatial-resolution and long-term climate data are highly desirable for understanding climate-related natural processes. China covers a large area with a low density of weather stations in some (e.g., mountainous) regions. This study describes a 0.5 ′ (∼ 1 km) dataset of monthly air temperatures at 2 m (minimum, maximum, and mean proxy monthly temperatures, TMPs) and precipitation (PRE) for China in the period of 1901–2017. The dataset was spatially downscaled from the 30 ′ Climatic Research Unit (CRU) time series dataset with the climatology dataset of WorldClim using delta spatial downscaling and evaluated using observations collected in 1951–2016 by 496 weather stations across China. Prior to downscaling, we evaluated the performances of the WorldClim data with different spatial resolutions and the 30 ′ original CRU dataset using the observations, revealing that their qualities were overall satisfactory. Specifically, WorldClim data exhibited better performance at higher spatial resolution, while the 30 ′ original CRU dataset had low biases and high performances. Bicubic, bilinear, and nearest-neighbor interpolation methods employed in downscaling processes were compared, and bilinear interpolation was found to exhibit the best performance to generate the downscaled dataset. Compared with the evaluations of the 30 ′ original CRU dataset, the mean absolute error of the new dataset (i.e., of the 0.5 ′ dataset downscaled by bilinear interpolation) decreased by 35.4 %–48.7 % for TMPs and by 25.7 % for PRE. The root-mean-square error decreased by 32.4 %–44.9 % for TMPs and by 25.8 % for PRE. The Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficients increased by 9.6 %–13.8 % for TMPs and by 31.6 % for PRE, and correlation coefficients increased by 0.2 %–0.4 % for TMPs and by 5.0 % for PRE. The new dataset could provide detailed climatology data and annual trends of all climatic variables across China, and the results could be evaluated well using observations at the station. Although the new dataset was not evaluated before 1950 owing to data unavailability, the quality of the new dataset in the period of 1901–2017 depended on the quality of the original CRU and WorldClim datasets. Therefore, the new dataset was reliable, as the downscaling procedure further improved the quality and spatial resolution of the CRU dataset and was concluded to be useful for investigations related to climate change across China. The dataset presented in this article has been published in the Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) at 10.5281/zenodo.3114194 for precipitation (Peng, 2019a) and 10.5281/zenodo.3185722 for air temperatures at 2 m (Peng, 2019b) and includes 156 NetCDF files compressed in zip format and one user guidance text file. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed temporal and spatial changes of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) on the northern Loess Plateau and their correlation with climatic factors from 1998 to 2012. The possible impacts of human activities on the NDVI changes were also explored. The results showed that (1) the annual maximum NDVI showed an upward trend. The significantly increased NDVI and decreasing severe desertification areas demonstrate that the vegetation condition improved in this area. (2) Over the past decades, climate tended to be warmer and drier. However, the mean temperature significantly decreased and precipitation slightly increased from 1998 to 2012, especially in spring and summer, which was one of the major reasons for the increase in the annual maximum NDVI. Compared to temperature, vegetation was more sensitive to precipitation changes in this area. The NDVI and annual precipitation changes were highly synchronous over the first half of the year, while a 1-month time lag existed between the two variables during the second half of the year. (3) Positive human activities, including the “Grain for Green” program and successful environmental treatments at coal mining bases, were some of the other factors that improved the vegetation condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Terrestrial water cycles are influenced by hydrologic and textural properties of the deep loess layer in the Loess Plateau. Analyses of soil water profile distributions are needed to understand the regional water cycle processes and to guide agricultural production and sustainability. The objective of this study was to quantify the extent of deep soil water recharge and soil water profile dynamics during 1987–2003, especially in a record wet year of 2003, in common cropping systems in a semiarid-subhumid region of the southern Loess Plateau. The Chinese Ecological Research Network (CERN) site and a long-term rotation experiment site in a flat tableland were selected for this study. Soil moisture profiles were measured by a neutron probe to a depth of 6m in 2003. The precipitation of 954mm at the Changwu County Meteorological Station in 2003 was 63.4% higher than the long-term average (584mm), and was a record high since 1957. Although cropping systems affected deep soil water recharge, the persistent dry soil layer formed between 2- and 3-m depths in croplands, resulting from many years of intensive cropping, was fully replenished in all cropping systems in 2003. Further frequency analysis indicated that the desiccated layer between 2- and 3-m depths would be fully recharged at least once in about 10 years for all existing cropping systems excluding continuous alfalfa. This finding should alleviate concerns about the formation of a permanent deep-soil desiccation layer as well as its potential impact on the long-term sustainability of the existing intensive cropping systems in the region. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Straw mulching is widely used to conserve soil water and increase crop yields. The effects of wheat straw mulching rate and method on dryland soil water storage, winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) growth and yield, and water-use efficiency (WUE) were examined from 2008 to 2015 in the Loess Plateau of China. Treatments included wheat straw mulching at a high rate of 9000 kg ha −1 (HSM) and low rate of 4500 kg ha −1 (LSM) throughout the year, straw mulching at a rate of 9000 kg ha −1 during summer fallow (FSM), and no mulching (CK). Soil water storage at wheat planting and precipitation-storage efficiency (PSE) were greater with straw mulching than without. Soil water storage at harvest was greater with HSM than CK and FSM. Wheat yield components such as number of wheat seedling, plant, tiller, and spike and thousand-grain weight varied with treatments and years, but wheat aboveground biomass and grain yields were usually greater with mulching than without during years with below-average precipitation. Harvest index and WUE were lower with LSM and HSM than other treatments in most years, but evapotranspiration did not vary with treatments. Overall, the increased PSE due to straw mulching did not increase yield and WUE, and straw mulching could sustain dryland wheat grain yield only in dry years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nitrogen (N) and precipitation are the main limiting factors in food production under rain-fed cropping systems in arid and semiarid regions. A long-term field experiment was conducted from 1984 to 2009 in the Changwu State Key Agro-Ecological Experimental Station of the Loess Plateau, China, to study interactions between precipitation and N fertilization. Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was grown with N fertilization at 0, 45, 90, 135, and 180kgNha−1. With 25-year N fertilization, soil organic carbon and total N were increased by 18% and 26%, respectively. Mean yields and precipitation use efficiency (PUE) levels with N fertilization were increased by onefold to twofold compared with unfertilized soils. Generally, during the period of 1984–2009, grain yields with 45–`180kgN ha−1 increased at the rate of 38–49kgha−1 year−1 (p <0.05), whereas PUE increased at the rate of 0.071–0.088kgmm−1 year−1. These increases over time are largely attributable to improvements in soil organic carbon and total N. Variations in yield were proportionally reduced by N fertilization, but heavily depended on the fluctuation of precipitation. Grain yields with 45–180kgN ha−1 decreased by approximately 10%–45% (p <0.05) in the dry years (drought index<−0.35) compared with the normal years, whereas significant increases were not detected in the wet years (drought index>0.35). Grain yields with 90–180kgN ha−1 were positively correlated (p <0.05) with fallow season precipitation, but insignificantly correlated with growing season precipitation. The optimum N fertilization rates in the dry, normal and wet years increased following an increasing sequence of 45, 135 and 180kgNha−1. These results have significant implications for optimizing N fertilization and maximizing yield and PUE in rain-fed cropping systems in arid and semiarid regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]