Climate change has a significant influence on the environment and economy in the
Loess Plateau (LP) region. Studying the spatio-temporal trends of climate change at the fine
scale would be conductive to develop flexible adaptation and mitigation strategies against the
climate change issues in this region. This study downscaled CRU climate data from 1901 to
2014 to spatial resolution of 1 km using the Delta downscaling method and evaluated the
monthly climate change in this region. The spatio-temporal characteristics of the climate in this
region were analyzed with the anomalies method, Mann-Kendall trend test, and Sen’s slope
estimation method. The results are as following: 1) The Delta downscaling method performs
well in generating monthly precipitation and temperature data with 1 km spatial resolution.
Among the four interpolation methods, the bilinear interpolation is the best method for the
downscaling process. 2) During 1901-2014, the annual precipitation had no significant trend,
while the annual average temperature presented a significant increasing trend with 0.1 ℃/10 a.
Compared with the average level of the climate during 1961-1990, the climate in 1960s was
cold and wet, while it was dry and warm after 1980. The annual precipitation in the west of the
LP region (accounting for 3.05% of the area) showed a significant increasing trend during
1901-2014, ranging from 0.24 mm/10 a to 3.52 mm/10 a. The annual average temperature in
region other than the west of the LP region (accounting for 91.30% of the area) showed a
significantly increasing trend ranging from 0.02 ℃/10 a to 0.17 ℃/10 a during 1901-2014, and
the magnitudes of the trend increased from southwest to northeast. 3) During 1981-2010, the
climate in the west of the LP region (accounting for 92.02% of the area) was drier and warmer
than it was during 1961-1990, while in the rest region (accounting for 7.98% of the area) it
became wetter and warmer. The annual precipitation in Minhe and region south to Minhe
(accounting for 0.05% area) presented a significantly increasing trend during 1981- 2010,
ranging from17.25 mm/10 a to 27.93 mm/10 a. The annual average temperature in region other
than the west of the LP region (accounting for 87.61% of the area) had a significantly
increasing trend during 1981-2010, ranging from 0.23 ℃/10 a to 0.71 ℃/10 a. These results
could provide a scientific basis for developing strategies addressing global climate change
issues in the LP region.
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