N Lu et al 2009 Environ. Res. Lett. 4 045006 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045006
N Lu1,4, B Wilske1, J Ni2,3, R John1 and J Chen1
Show affiliationsPart of Climatic and Environmental Change in Northern Eurasia
This study investigated the climate change in Inner Mongolia based on 51 meteorological stations from 1955 to 2005. The climate data was analyzed at the regional, biome (i.e. forest, grassland and desert) and station scales, with the biome scale as our primary focus. The climate records showed trends of warmer and drier conditions in the region. The annual daily mean, maximum and minimum temperature increased whereas the diurnal temperature range (DTR) decreased. The decreasing trend of annual precipitation was not significant. However, the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) increased significantly. On the decadal scale, the warming and drying trends were more significant in the last 30 years than the preceding 20 years. The climate change varied among biomes, with more pronounced changes in the grassland and the desert biomes than in the forest biome. DTR and VPD showed the clearest inter-biome gradient from the lowest rate of change in the forest biome to the highest rate of change in the desert biome. The rates of change also showed large variations among the individual stations. Our findings correspond with the IPCC predictions that the future climate will vary significantly by location and through time, suggesting that adaptation strategies also need to be spatially viable.
92.60.hv Pressure, density, and temperature
92.60.Fm Boundary layer structure and processes
92.60.Jq Water in the atmosphere (humidity, clouds, evaporation, precipitation)
Issue 4 (October-December 2009)
Received 9 March 2009, accepted for publication 13 July 2009
Published 15 October 2009
N Lu et al 2009 Environ. Res. Lett. 4 045006
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