全球变化知识资源中心

Both cropland and climate change over time, but the potential effects of climate change on cropland is currently not well understood. Here, we combined temporally and spatially explicit dynamics of cropland with air temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation datasets. China's cropland showed a clear northward-shifting trend from 1990 to 2015. The cropland decreased south of the break line at 38 degrees N, whereas it increased from the break line to northern regions. Correspondingly, the temperature showed a significant warming trend in the early part of the study period, which slowed down in later years. During the whole study period, both precipitation and solar radiation decreased over time, showed no significant linear characteristics, and the annual fluctuations were very large. The cropland areas in China showed a displacement characteristic with the increasing temperature, precipitation, and radiation. Overall, the cropland was shifting towards the high-temperature, low-precipitation, and low-radiation areas. The cropland dynamics indicate that they are likely to face severe drought and radiation pressure. Our findings imply that more resources such as irrigation may be needed for cropland, which will undoubtedly aggravate the agricultural water use in most northern regions, and the potential impacts on food security will further emerge in the future.