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cje ›› 2011, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (09): 1921-1929.

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Phenological responses of different life form plants in Minqin desert area to climate warming. 

CHANG Zhao-feng1,2,3, WANG Qiang-qiang1,2,3**, HAN Fu-gui1,2,3, ZHONG Sheng-nian1,2,3   

  1. 1Minqin National Station for Desert Steppe Ecosystem Studies, Minqin 733300, Gansu, China; 2Gansu Key Laboratory of Desertification Combating,Lanzhou 730070, China; 3 Gansu Desert Control Research Institute, Lanzhou 730070, China
  • Online:2011-09-08 Published:2011-09-08

Abstract: Based on the phenological and meteorological data observed in the Minqin desert area since 1974, 22 plant species in the area were classified into 3 life forms, i.e., arbor, shrub, and herb in terms of growth type, and again, divided into phenerophyte, chamaephyte, and hemicryptophyte according to positions where the renewal buds seated. By these two methods, the differences in the phnelogical responses of the 3 life form plants were analyzed. As for the 3 life form plants, whatever either of the two methods adopted, they were more sensitive to temperature change in spring than in autumn, and the differences in their phenological responses were greater when classified according to growth type, with larger differences mainly between arbors and shrub. Both the duration of local growth season and the advancing magnitudes of the phenology of arbor and phaenerophyte in spring were greater than those recorded in other literatures. The higher the renewal buds seated, the more sensitive the responses of the plants to climate warming in current month and in the same year, implying that within the scope of the arbor height above ground, the higher the vertical distance from the ground, the more significant the effect of temperature on the phenology of the plants in spring.

Key words: Cucumber, Temperature and sunlight, Solar greenhouse, Ultrastructure of chloroplast, Grana