Abstract: Through the analysis on the research data about climate warming and its effects on the Three-North Regions since the 1990’s, a trend was found that the Three-North Regions of China was suffering the climatic warming and drying, which would be more obvious in the coming decades, especially in the northeastern part of China. This trend would give stresses on the Three-North Shelter Forest Program in the aspects of 1) expansion of arid area and desertification, 2) changes in the distribution pattern of natural vegetations, i.e., a converse succession from the west to the east and the appearance of many sensitive ecotones, and 3) decline risk faced by the existent shelter forests. Aiming at these stresses, four strategies were suggested: 1) increasing the construction scope, 2) taking vegetation thicketization and open forest as the goal of designing shelter forest ecotone, 3) designing Pinus tabulaeformis plantations based on original vegetation pattern in the are a at water and soil loss, and 4) drawing up a technical program for the management of shelterbelts in the Three-North Regions of China.

Key words: Hippophae rhamnoides, Caragana korshinskii, Water use characteristics, Productivity, Eco-adaptability