Using satellite-derived land surface temperatures to clarify the spatiotemporal warming trends of the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran

The Alborz Mountains are some of the highest in Iran,and they play an important role in controlling the climate of the country’s northern regions.The land surface temperature(LST)is an important variable that affects the ecosystem of this area.This study investigated the spatiotemporal changes and trends of the nighttime LST in the western region of the Central Alborz Mountains at elevations of 1500-4000 m above sea level.MODIS data were extracted for the period of 2000-2021,and the Mann-Kendall nonparametric test was applied to evaluating the changes in the LST.The results indicated a significant increasing trend for the monthly average LST in May-August along the southern aspect.Both the northern and southern aspects showed decreasing trends for the monthly average LST in October,November,and March and an increasing trend in other months.At all elevations,the average decadal change in the monthly average LST was more severe along the southern aspect(0.60°C)than along the northern aspect(0.37°C).The LST difference between the northern and southern aspects decreased in the cold months but increased in the hot months.At the same elevation,the difference in the lapse rate between the northern and southern aspects was greater in the hot months than in the cold months.With increasing elevation,the lapse rate between the northern and southern aspects disappeared.Climate change was concluded to greatly decrease the difference in LST at different elevations for April-July.

Surface air temperature change in the Wuyi Mountains,southeast China

Detecting changes in surface air temperature in mid-and low-altitude mountainous regions is essential for a comprehensive understanding of warming trend with altitude.We use daily surface air temperature data from 64 meteorological stations in Wuyi Mountains and its adjacent regions to analyze the spatio-temporal patterns of temperature change.The results show that Wuyi Mountains have experienced significant warming from 1961 to 2018.The warming trend of the mean temperature is 0.20℃/decade,the maximum temperature is 0.17℃/decade,and the minimum temperature is 0.26℃/decade.In 1961-1990,more than 63%of the stations showed a decreasing trend in annual mean temperature,mainly because the maximum temperature decreased during this period.However,in 1971-2000,1981-2010 and 1991-2018,the maximum,minimum and mean temperatures increased.The fastest increasing trend of mean temperature occurred in the southeastern coastal plains,the quickest increasing trend of maximum temperature occurred in the northwestern mountainous region,and the increase of minimum temperature occurred faster in the southeastern coastal and northwestern mountainous regions than that in the central area.Meanwhile,this study suggests that elevation does not affect warming in the Wuyi Mountains.These results are beneficial for understanding climate change in humid subtropical middle and low mountains.

Changes in snow cover extent in the Central Taurus Mountains from 1981 to 2021 in relation to temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric teleconnections

The snow cover over the Taurus Mountains affects water supply, agriculture, and hydropower generation in the region. In this study, we analyzed the monthly Snow Cover Extent(SCE) from November to April in the Central Taurus Mountains(Bolkar, Aladaglar, Tahtali and Binboga Mountains) from 1981 to 2021. Linear trends of snow cover season(November to April) over the last 41 years showed decreases in SCE primarily at lower elevations. The downward trend in SCE was found to be more pronounced and statistically significant for only November and March. SCE in the Central Taurus Mountains has declined about-6.3% per decade for 2500-3000 m in November and about-6.0% per decade for 1000-1500 m and 3000+ m in March over the last 41 years. The loss of SCE has become evident since the 2000s, and the lowest negative anomalies in SCE have been observed in 2014, 2001, and 2007 in the last 41 years, which are consistent with an increase in air temperature and decreased precipitation. SCE was correlated with both mean temperature and precipitation, with temperature having a greater relative importance at all elevated gradients. Results showed that there is a strong linear relationship between SCE and the mean air temperature(r =-0.80) and precipitation(r = 0.44) for all elevated gradients during the snow season. The Arctic Oscillation(AO), the North Atlantic Oscillation(NAO), and the Mediterranean Oscillation(MO) winter indices were used to explain the year-to-year variability in SCE over the Central Taurus Mountains. The results showed that the inter-annual variability observed in the winter SCE on the Central Taurus Mountains was positively correlated with the phases of the winter AO, NAO and MO, especially below 2000 m elevation.

Statistical Downscaling Retrieval of Land Surface Temperature in an Area with Complex Landforms in the Eastern Qinling Mountains of China Based on Sentinel-2/3 Satellite Data

The study of land surface temperature(LST)is of great significance for ecosystem monitoring and ecological environmental protection in the Qinling Mountains of China.In view of the contradicting spatial and temporal resolutions in extracting LST from satellite remote sensing(RS)data,the areas with complex landforms of the Eastern Qinling Mountains were selected as the research targets to establish the correlation between the normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)and LST.Detailed information on the surface features and temporal changes in the land surface was provided by Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3,respectively.Based on the statistically downscaling method,the spatial scale could be decreased from 1000 m to 10 m,and LST with a Sentinel-3 temporal resolution and a 10 m spatial resolution could be retrieved.Comparing the 1 km resolution Sentinel-3 LST with the downscaling results,the 10 m LST downscaling data could accurately reflect the spatial distribution of the thermal characteristics of the original LST image.Moreover,the surface temperature data with a 10 m high spatial resolution had clear texture and obvious geomorphic features that could depict the detailed information of the ground features.The results showed that the average error was 5 K on April 16,2019 and 2.6 K on July 15,2019.The smaller error values indicated the higher vegetation coverage of summer downscaling result with the highest level on July 15.

Spatial pattern recognition for near-surface high temperature increases in mountain areas using MODIS and SRTM DEM

Abrupt near-surface temperature changes in mountainous areas are a special component of the mountain climate system.Fast and accurate measurements of the locations,intensity,and width of the near-surface changes are necessary but highly difficult due to the complicated environmental conditions and instrumental issues.This paper develops a spatial pattern recognition method to measure the near-surface high temperature increase(NSHTI),one of the lesser-attended changes.First,raster window measurement was proposed to calculate the temperature lapse rate using MODIS land surface temperature and SRTM DEM data.It fully considers the terrain heights of two neighboring cells on opposite or adjacent slopes with a moving window of 3×3 cell size.Second,a threshold selection was performed to identify the NSHTI cells using a threshold of-0.65℃/100 m.Then,the NSHTI strips were parameterized through raster vectorization and spatial analysis.Taking Yunnan,a mountainous province in southwestern China,as the study area,the results indicate that the NSHTI cells concentrate in a strip-like pattern along the mountains and valleys,and the strips are almost parallel to the altitude contours with a slight northward uplift.Also,they are located mostly at a 3/5 height of high mountains or within 400 m from the valley floors,where the controlling topographic index is the altitude of the terrain trend surface but not the absolute elevation and the topographic uplift height and cutting depth.Additionally,the NSHTI intensity varies with the geographic locations and the proportions increase with an exponential trend,and the horizontal width has a mean of about 1000 m and a maximum of over 5000 m.The result demonstrates that the proposed method can effectively recognize NSHTI boundaries over mountains,providing support for the modeling of weather and climate systems and the development of mountain resources.

Unraveling the distribution patterns of near-surface temperature lapse rates in the Northwestern Kunlun Mountains

The near-surface temperature lapse rates for the core area of the Kunlun Mountains remain critically unresolved due to data scarcity.Here,we revealed the spatial and temporal patterns of nearsurface temperature lapse rate in the Kunlun Mountain regions based on both long-term meteorological records(1961-2017)and field surveys measured data(2012-2017).The results showed that(1)The near-surface temperature lapse rates(β;)has spatiotemporal distribution patterns on the Northwestern Kunlun Mountains(NWKM),and in complex terrain areas the complexity of the temperature-elevation relationship cannot be explained by the constant environmental temperature lapse rate(0.65℃/100 m)throughout alone.(2)Theβ;for the daily mean,minimum,and maximum temperature on the north slopes in the Kunlun mountain area are 0.41,0.47,and 0.37℃/100 m and on the Tiznafu River(TR)basin are 0.51,0.47 and 0.53℃/100 m,respectively.(3)The variations ofβ;for daily maximum and minimum temperature of the two regions exhibit similar monthly characteristics,which are lower in the winter and spring months than in other months.A greatest variability ofβ;for the daily mean,minimum,and maximum temperature appears in winter and a light variability ofβ;occurs in spring.The seasonal variability ofβ;for daily maximum temperature is greater than that for daily minimum temperature,and the seasonal variability ofβ;for daily average temperature has the smallest variability.(4)There is no significant trend of change occurred in theβ;of NWKM.(5)The spatial and temporal variations ofβ;for the NWKM are linked to the geographic differences and climate factors.The results of Grey Relational Analysis showed that theβ;distribution is mainly influenced by the wind speed and relative humidity of the NWKM.

Recent Climate Warming of Central China Reflected by Temperature-sensitive Tree Growth in the Eastern Qinling Mountains and its Linkages to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

We have developed a 202-year tree-ring width chronology of Shensi fir(Abies chensiensis) growing in an open canopy forest at the treeline of the eastern Qinling Mountains. Climate response analyses revealed that the ring width of Shensi fir trees is primarily controlled by the range of temperature from February–June. The regression model that we used for statistical temperature reconstruction passed the leave-one-out cross-validation used in dendroclimatology, resulting in a quality-controlled February–June reconstruction for the eastern Qinling Mountains. The model accounts for 36.7% of the instrumental temperature variance during the period of 1960–2012. Warm springs and early summers occurred during AD 1870–1873, 1909–1914, 1927–1958 and 1997–2012, while the periods of AD 1874–1908, 1915–1926 and 1959–1996 were relatively cold. Spatial climate correlation analyses with gridded land surface data revealed that our temperature reconstruction contains a strong regional temperature signal for central China. The linkages of ourtemperature reconstruction with sea surface temperature in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans suggest the connection of regional temperature variations to large-scale ocean–atmosphere–land circulation. Preliminary analysis of links between large-scale climatic variation and the temperature reconstruction also shows that there is a relationship between extremes in spring and early summer temperature and anomalous atmospheric circulation in the Qinling Mountains. Overall, our study provides reliable information for the research of past temperature variability in the Qinling Mountains, China.

Changes of Temperature and Precipitation Extremes in Hengduan Mountains,Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 1961-2008

Variations and trends in extreme climate events are more sensitive to climate change than the mean values,and so have received much attention.In this study,twelve indices of temperature extremes and 11 indices of precipitation extremes at 32 meteorological stations in Hengduan Mountains were examined for the period 1961-2008.The results reveal statistically significant increases in the temperature of the warmest and coldest nights and in the frequencies of extreme warm days and nights.Decreases of the diurnal temperature range and the numbers of frost days and ice days are statistically significant.Regional averages of growing season length also display the trends consistent and significant with warming.At a large proportion of the stations,patterns of temperature extremes are consistent with warming since 1961:warming trends in minimum temperature indices are greater than those relating to maximum temperature.As the center of the Shaluli Mountain,the warming magnitudes decrease from inner to outer.Changes in precipitation extremes is low:trends are difficult to detect against the larger inter-annual and decadal-scale variability of precipitation,and only the wet day precipitation and the regional trend in consecutive dry days are significant at the 0.05 level.It can be concluded that the variation of extreme precipitation events is not obvious in the Hengduan Mountains,however,the regional trends generally decrease from the south to the north.Overall,the spatial distribution of temporal changes of all extreme climate indices in the Hengduan Mountains illustrated here reflects the climatic complexity in mountainous regions.

Mapping Daily Temperature and Precipitation in the Qilian Mountains of Northwest China

Daily meteorological data are the critical inputs for distributed hydrological and ecological models. This study modified mountain microclimate simulation model(MTCLIM) with the data from 19 weather stations, and compared and validated two methods(the MTCLIM and the modified MTCLIM) in the Qilian Mountains of Northwest China to estimate daily temperature(i.e., maximum temperature,minimum temperature) and precipitation at six weather stations from 1 January 2000 to 31 December2009. The algorithm of temperature in modified MTCLIM was improved by constructing the daily linear regression relationship between temperature and elevation, aspect and location information. There are two steps to modify the MTCLIM to predict daily precipitation: firstly, the linear regression relationship was built between annual average precipitation and elevation, location, and vegetation index; secondly, the distance weight for measuring the contribution of each weather station on target point was improved by average wind direction during the rainy season. Several regression analysis and goodness-of-fit indices(i.e., Pearson's correlation coefficient, coefficient of determination, mean absolute error, root-mean-square error and modeling efficiency) were used to validate these estimated values. The result showed that the modified MTCLIM had a better performance than the MTCLIM.Therefore, the modified MTCLIM was used to map daily meteorological data in the study area from 2000 to 2009. These results were validated using weather stations with short time data and the predicted accuracy was acceptable. The meteorological data mapped could become inputs for distributed hydrological and ecological models applied in the Qilian Mountains.

Variations of Snow Temperature and their Influence on Snow Cover Physical Parameters in the Western Tianshan Mountains,China

This article discussed about snow temperature variations and their impact on snow cover parameters.Automatic temperature recorders were used to sample at 10-minute intervals at the Tianshan Station for Snow-cover and Avalanche Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences.10-layer snow temperature and the snow cover parameters were measured by the snow property analyzer (Snow Fork) in its Stable period,Interim period and Snow melting period.Results indicate that the amplitude of the diurnal fluctuation in the temperature during Snow melting period is 1.62 times greater than that during Stable period.Time up to the peak temperature at the snow surface lags behind the peak solar radiation by more than 2.5 hours,and lags behind the peak atmospheric temperature by more than 0.2 hours during all three periods.The optimal fitted function of snow temperature profile becomes more complicated from Stable period to Snow melting period.22 h temperature profiles in Stable period are the optimal fitted by cubic polynomial equation.In Interim period and Snow melting period,temperature profiles are optimal fitted by exponential equation between sunset and sunrise,and by Fourier function when solar radiation is strong.The vertical gradient in the snow temperature reaches its maximum value at the snow surface for three periods.The peak of this maximum value occurs during Stable period,and is 4.46 times greater than during Interim period.The absolute value of temperature gradient is lower than 0.1°C cm-1 for 30 cm beneath snow surface.Snow temperature and temperature gradient in Stable period～Interim period indirectly cause increase (decrease) of snow density mainly by increasing (decreasing) permittivity.While it dramatically increases its water content to change its permittivity and snow density in Snow melting period.

Temporal and spatial variations in extreme temperatures in the Qilian Mountains-Hexi Corridor over the period 1960-2013

Based on daily maximum and minimum temperatures at 18 meteorological stations in the Qilian Mountains and Hexi Corridor between 1960 and 2013,temporal and spatial variations in extreme temperatures were analysed using linear trends,tenpoint moving averages and the Mann-Kendall test.The results are as follows:The trends in the majority of the extreme temperature indices were statistically significant,and the changes in the extreme temperatures were more obvious than the changes in the extreme values.The trends were different for each season,and the changes in rates and intensities in summer and autumn were larger than those in spring and winter.Unlike the cold indices,the magnitudes and trends of the changes in the warm indices were larger and more significant in the Hexi Corridor than in the Qilian Mountains.Abrupt changes were detected in the majority of the extreme temperature indices,and the extreme cold indices usually occurred earlier than the changes in the extreme warm indices.The abrupt changes in the extreme temperatures in winter were the earliest among the four seasons,indicating that these temperature changes were the most sensitive to global climate change.The timing of the abrupt changes in certain indices was consistent throughout the study area,but the changes in the cold indices in the Hexi Corridor occurred approximately four years before those in the Qilian Mountains.Similarly,the changes in the warm indices in the western Hexi Corridor preceded those of the other regions.

Evolution of temperature indices in the periglacial environment of the European Alps in the period 1990-2019

Air temperature in the European Alps shows warming over recent decades at an average rate of 0.3℃/10 years,therebyoutpacing the global warming rate of 0.2℃/10 years.The periglacial environment of the Alps is particularly important for several aspects(i.e.hydropower production,tourism,natural hazards,indicator of global warming).However,there is a lack of specific and updated studies relating to temperature change in this environment.In order to fill this gap,the recent temperature trends in the periglacial environment of the Alps were analyzed.Mean/maximum/minimum daily air temperatures recorded by 14 land-based meteorological stations were used,and the temperature indices for the period 1990-2019 were calculated.The periglacial environment of the Alps showed a warming rate of 0.4℃/10 years,0.6℃/10 years and 0.8℃/10 years for the mean/maximum/minimum temperatures,respectively.These warming rates are higher than that observed for the entire Alpine area.In 2050 many glaciers of the Alps below 3000 m altitude are expected to be extinct,and all the areas previously occupied by glaciers will become periglacial.In order to manage and adapt to these changes,more in-depth climate analyses are needed.This is necessary for all the mountainous areas of the world,which are undergoing similar changes.

New methods for calculating bare soil land surface temperature over mountainous terrain

Land surface temperature(LST) causes the phase change of water, links to the partitioning of surface water and energy budget, and becomes an important parameter to hydrology, meteorology, ecohydrology, and other researches in the high mountain cold regions. Unlike air temperature, which has common altitudinal lapse rates in the mountainous regions, the influence of terrain leads to complicated estimation for soil LST. This study presents two methods that use air temperature and solar position,to estimate bare LST with high temporal resolution over horizontal sites and mountainous terrain with a random slope azimuth. The data from three horizontal meteorological stations and fourteen LST observation fields with different aspects and slopes were used to test the proposed LST methods. The calculated and measured LST were compared in a range of statistical analysis, and the analysis showed that the average RMSE(root mean square error),MAD(mean absolute deviation), and R^2(correlation coefficient) for three horizontal sites were 5.09℃,3.66℃, 0.92, and 5.03℃, 3.52℃, 0.85 for the fourteen complex terrain sites. The proposed methods showed acceptable accuracy, provide a simple way to estimate LST, and will be helpful for simulating the water and energy cycles in alpine mountainous terrain.

Characterizing and predicting smoldering temperature variations based on non-linear mixed effects models

Underground fires are slow spreading,long-lasting and low temperature smoldering combustion without flames,mainly occurring in peatlands and wetlands with rich organic matter.The spread of the smoldering is maintained by heat released during combustion and monitoring this is an important approach to detect underground fires.The Daxing'an Mountains region is a hotspot for underground fires in northeast China.This study examined a L arix gmelinii plantation in the Tatou wetlands of the Daxing'an Mountains and determined the maximum temperature variation of humus of varying particle sizes,and the temperature rising process based on non-linear mixed effects models by an indoor combustion experiment.Maximum combustion temperatures up to 897.5°C,increased with humus depth;among the three models tested,Richard's equations were best for characterizing temperature variations;a non-linear equation with three parameters had the highest accuracy in fitting the combustion temperature variations with varying humus particle sizes.These results are informative for predicting temperature variations and provide technical support for underground fire monitoring.

Annual and seasonal changes of the air temperature with altitude in the Upper Dades valley, High Atlas, Morocco

The purpose of this study is to determine the size of air temperature changes with altitude in the mountains of the arid zone, on the example of the Upper Dades valley(High Atlas, Morocco). The air temperature change with altitude was determined on the basis of 5 years data from three meteorological stations. The analysis was carried out on an annual and seasonal basis. The annual and daily variations of thermal gradients between pairs of stations were also determined. It was found that the average thermal gradient in the Upper Dades valley was-1.02℃ per 100 m. The highest values of the thermal gradient occur in winter and the lowest in summer. In winter,the thermal gradient was characterized by the greatest variability. Minima of the daily variation of air temperature gradients were observed in early morning hours and maxima around midday. In the lower part of the valley, air temperature inversion frequently developed between 10 AM and 3 PM UTC.The obtained results show high thermal gradients in the mountains of the arid zone, with their annual amplitude increasing in the lower parts of the valley.The instantaneous values of the gradients were significantly modified by the supply of latent heat and the occurrence of dust storms. It has been shown that the advection factor plays an important role in shaping large gradient values. The study contains novel results of thermal gradient measurements in high mountains of arid zone.

January to August temperature variability since 1776 inferred from tree-ring width of Pinus tabulaeformis in Helan Mountain

Tree-ring standardized chronologies are developed by 78 cores collected from the eastern and western Helan Mountain. Statistical analysis shows that both the STD and RES chronologies correlate negatively with the temperature of different periods of early half year, especially with January to August mean （JA） temperature, which means that JA temperature is one of the predominant limiting factors of tree growth in the Helan Mountain. Based on this analysis, we reconstructed JA temperature, and the explained variance is 43.3% （F=21.422, p〈0.001 ）. The comparatively high temperature periods in the reconstruction were： 1805-1818 1828-1857, 1899-1907, 1919-1931 and 1968-1995; and the comparatively low temperatu re periods happened in 1858-1872, 1883-1895 and 1935-1953. Ten-year moving average curve shows three slow uplifting trends： 1766-1853, 1862-1931 and 1944-1995. Each temperature increase was followed by a sudden temperature decrease about 10 years, that is to say, the JA temperature in the Helan Mountain is characterized by slow increase and sudden decrease. The 70- and 10.77-year periodicities detected in the temperature series correspond to the Gleissberg （80-year） and Schwabe （11-year） periodicities of solar activity respectively, the 2.11-2.62 years cycles are considered to be influenced by QBO （Quasi-Biennial-Oscillation） and the local environmental change.

Spatial distribution modeling of temperature increase for the uplifted mountain terrains and its characteristics in Southwest China

Local temperature changes in mountain areas are significantly affected by the uplifted mountain terrains. Understanding how temperature increase with mountain terrains is an important component in accurately modeling the spatial distribution of temperature. The study, after minimizing the effect of elevation and latitude, quantitatively simulated the temperature increase in the uplifted mountain terrains, described the characteristics in the spatial distribution of warming areas with different magnitudes, and identified the correlated indices of mountain bodies for warming. Selecting Yunnan Province in southwest China as the study area, we simulated the warming field on a baseline surface at the average elevation of 2000 m and average latitude of 24.96°. The results indicated that the warming magnitudes in different local areas varied with the change in the spatial locations, and the warming process concentrated in the mountainous regions. Throughout the entire study area, the warming field presented a general pattern of three terraces from the regions of high mountains to middle mountains and then low mountains. The areasof high warming magnitude mainly surrounded large mountain bodies and were distributed on the upper part. The areas of low warming magnitude clustered in the valleys and basins of the middle mountain region, mostly on the lower part of the large mountain bodies and its branches. The areas with zero warming magnitude occurred in the low mountains and broad valleys, which were distributed largely on the lower parts of the middle mountains and in most of the valleys. Quantified sampling analysis demonstrated good positive correlation between the warming magnitudes in uplifted mountain terrains and the volume index of the mountain body, as well as elevation difference, with the coefficients corresponding to 0.82 and 0.91, respectively.

Diurnal and seasonal variation of the elevation gradient of air temperature in the northern flank of the western Qinling Mountain range,China

The typically sparse or lacking distribution of meteorological stations in mountainous areas inadequately resolves temperature elevation variability. This study presented the diurnal and seasonal variations of the elevation gradient of air temperature in the northern flank of the western Qinling Mountain range,which has not been thoroughly evaluated. The measurements were conducted at 9 different elevations between 1710 and 2500 m from August 2014 to August 2015 with HOBO Data loggers. The results showed that the annual temperature lapse rates(TLRs) for Tmean,Tmin and Tmax were 0.45?C/100 m,0.44?C/100 m and 0.40?C/100 m,respectively,which are substantially smaller than the often used value of 0.60°C/100 m to 0.65°C/100 m. The TLRs showed no obvious seasonal variations,except for the maximum temperature lapse rate,which was steeper in winter and shallower in spring. Additionally,the TLRs showed significant diurnal variations,with the steepest TLR in forenoon and the shallowest in early morning or late-afternoon,and the TLRs changed more severely during the daytime than night time. The accumulated temperature above 0°C,5°C and 10°C(AT0,AT5 and AT10) decreased at a lapse rate of 112.8?C days/100 m,104.5?C days/100 m and 137.0?C days/100 m,respectively. The monthly and annual mean diurnal range of temperatures(MDRT and ADRT) demonstrated unimodal curves along the elevation gradients,while the annual range of temperature(ART) showed no significant elevation differences. Our results strongly suggest that the extrapolated regional TLR may not be a good representative for an individual mountainside,in particular,where there are only sparse meteorological stations at high elevations.

Local Variability in Temperature, Humidity and Radiation in the BaekduDaegan Mountain Protected Area of Korea

A novel embedded sensor network records changes in key climatic-environmental variables over a range of altitude in the BaekduDaegan Mountain (BDM) of Gangwon Province in Korea, a protected mountain region with unique biodiversity undergoing climate change research. The investigated area is subdivided into three horizontal north-south study areas. Three variables, temperature (T, ℃), relative humidity (RH, %), and light intensity (LI, lumens m -2 , or lux, lx), have been continuously measured at hourly intervals from June, 2010 to September, 2011 using HOBO H8 devices at 10 fixed study sites. These hourly observations are aggregated to monthly, seasonal and annual mean values, and results are summarized to inaugurate a long-term climate change investigation. A region wide T difference in accordance with altitude, or lapse rate, over the interval is calculated as 0.4℃100 m -1 . T lapse rates change seasonally, with winter lapse rates being greater than those of summer. RH is elevated in summer compared to other seasons. LI within forestland is lower during summer and higher during other seasons. The obtained results could closely relate to the vegetation type and structure and the terrain state since data loggers were located in forestland.

A Soil Temperature Control System for Sapling Study in Alpine Region

A soil temperature control system was designed for sapling study in alpine region and tested in summer, 2009. The system consisted of a power switch, voltage regulator, microcomputer timer, safety relays, temperature control device, temperature sensors, heating cables, fireproofing plastic pipes (PVC), 108 heavy-duty plastic containers and seedlings. The heating cables were held in six 2-layer PVC frames with 25 cm wide, 320 cm long and 25 cm high and three 1-layer frames with 25 cm wide and 320 cm long for 15°C soil temperature treatment, half of the 2-layer frames were used for 20°C and 25°C soil temperature treatments, respectively. Each of the frames was installed at each of ditches with 30 cm wide, 330 cm long and 30 cm deep in size. 12 seedling containers with 20 cm top diameter, 18cm bottom diameter and 25 cm high were homogenously placed at each of the ditches, and spaces between the containers were filled with natural soil. The system was economic, and could increase soil temperatures obviously and uniformly, the maximal and minimal standard errors of soil temperatures were ±0.28 and ±0.05°C at 10cm depth in the containers within each of all the ditches. In the system, aboveground environment was natural, diurnal and monthly soil temperatures varied with changing air temperature, the research results may be better to know the eco-physiological and growth responses of alpine saplings/seedlings to soil warming than that in greenhouse, laboratory, infrared heat lamp and open top chamber.