Spatial and temporal distribution of spring cold damage in double cropping rice areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River
Rice is a heat and water-loving crop,which always suffers from cold and chilling damages during its growth.In this study,daily meteorological data collected from 76 meteorological stations in the double cropping rice areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from 1961 to 2007 were used and the spatial and temporal characteristics of spring cold damage in the area were analyzed.According to the spring cold damage standard,the intensity of cold damages was classified into three levels (mild,moderate and high).The method of climate statistical analysis was applied to analyze the spatial pattern and inter-annual variation of the spring cold damages in three levels during the early period of rice growth.Wavelet analysis was applied afterwards to analyze the temporal pattern of spring cold damage.The results showed that:①The study area was mainly suffered from mild cold damages at one year 0.74 times per station,and the suffered area accounted for 54.0% of the whole area; ②The cold damages in the northeast part of the studied area was more serious than those in the southwest part by 1.1 times per year; ③The spring cold damage fluctuated inter-annually and inter-decadally,with the highest occurrence in the 1960s and the lowest at the beginning of the 21st century.The frequency of cold damage reduced significantly (P<0.05),and the moderate cold damage dominated at the early period rice growth.The spring rice cold damage displayed a cyclical oscillation characteristics but only the small scale cycle of 3-5 years passed the red noise significant test with the significance level α =0.05.The above results indicated that the spring rice cold damage in the double cropping rice areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River presented distinct temporal and spatial variations.