Study on the Sensitivity and Vulnerability of Wheat to Climate Change in China

摘要

Based on B2 climate change scenario produced by PRECIS (providing regional climates for impacts studies), which was developed by the UK Hadley Center, and the wheat yield data outputted by CERES-wheat model, the sensitivity and vulnerability of wheatproduction to the future climate change in China were studied through analyzing the yield variation using the GIS (geographical information system) techniques. Results showed that, by the 2070s, there will be three negative sensitive areas of rain-fed wheat, i.e., northeastern China, the region of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and part of the Loess Plateau. Irrigated wheat is generally sensitive to the future climate change for most areas of China, with a lower sensitive degree anda distribution of sensitive areas similar to the rain-fed wheat. For the irrigated wheat, northeast and northwest of China are strongly negative sensitive, while the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the coastal areas of southern China and the southwest of China, are moderately negative sensitive to the climate change. With the appropriate adaptation to the climate change, the rain-fed wheat in most regions of China will not be vulnerable and even has a yield increase, while the irrigated wheat will still have a larger vulnerable area (occupying about 2/3 of its total area in China), with the highly vulnerable regions distributed in northeastern China and northwestern China, and the medium and light vulnerable areas distributed along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.