Characteristics of climate change, grain yield and climate productivity potential during last 53 years in Qinghai Province

Based on temperature and precipitation data during 1961-2013 in Qinghai Province, characteristics of climate change were analyzed and climate productivity potential (TSPV) was calculated by Thornthwaite Memorial model to explore the relationship between grain yield and climate productivity potential. The results showed that annual average temperature significantly increased during 1961-2013 with increase rate of 0.40 ℃10a-1 and precipitation slightly increased with increase rate of 6.0 mm10a-1. However, sunshine hours and relative humidity decreased. During last decade since 2002, the total grain yield had correlation with climate productive potential with the correlation coefficient of 0.29 (P 0.05) and TSPV showed an abrupt change from 2002. TSPV varied from 323.39 to 478.48 gm-2a-1 during 1961-2013 with great annual variation and weak increase at rate of 0.914 gm-2a-1.