Abstract: Different cropping patterns have their own economic and ecological significance. Developing cropping patterns suitable for local conditions is needed to protect and make good use of black soils. At present, the cropping patterns and their spatial characteristics in the black soil region of Northeast China is poorly understood. Based on the crop classification data in 2017-2019, we used geo-information Tupu methods, distribution index model, and bivariate spatial autocorrelation to examine the cropping patterns. The results showed that: 1) The main cropping patterns in the black soil region of Northeast China were continuous maize cropping, continuous rice cropping, continuous soybean cropping, and maize-soybean rotation, accounting for 38.3%, 18.5%, 10.3% and 26.0%, respectively. The maize-soybean rotation included maize-soybean two-year rotation, maize-maize-soybean three-year rotation, and soybean-soybean-maize three-year rotation, accounting for 44.1%, 34.5% and 21.4% of the rotation area, respectively. 2) Various cropping patterns had obviously horizontal differentiation. For instance, continuous maize cropping had very obvious gradient differentiation characteristics in temperature and humidity, but soybean continuous cropping and maize-soybean rotation showed no gradient differentiation, while continuous rice cropping had gradient differentiation only in humidity. 3) Various cropping patterns had obviously spatial clustering characteristics. They had spatial transition characteristics from soybean continuous cropping, soybean-soybean-maize three-year rotation, maize-soybean two-year rotation, maize-maize-soybean three-year rotation, to continuous maize cropping. The cropping pattern in black soil region of Northeast China was dominated by continuous cropping. Understanding its distribution pattern can provide a basis for future spatial optimization of crop rotation.

Key words: black soil region of Northeast China, cropping pattern, geo-information Tupu, cropping pattern Tupu