Variation In Climatic Characteristics And Ecological Implications In The Longitudinal Range-gorge Region Of Yunnan, Southwest China

The question of whether climate has changed significantly is of substantial interest and requires a better understanding of climate behavior and climate impact problems associated with ecological, economic, and social matters. Having sufficient information about climatic change in the recent past is necessary to improve the certainty and accuracy of estimates about the future, and the role of this information is particularly important in assessments of regional climate change. Recent studies used vulnerability as an index to express the ecological response of one region to climatic change. The index will make the research works of different scientists comparable and promote ahead the study on the impact of climatic change in the world.Stretched along north-south directions in western Yunnan Province and under the comprehensive conditions of environmental pattern on landform, climate, water, soil, vegetation as well as human activity, the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region (LRGR) behaves the important corridor-barrier function which has attracted a great deal of interest from many geologists and ecologists. We analyzed spatial variation of temperature and precipitation in the LRGR using observational data of monthly air temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration and relative air humidity between 1960 and 2000. Changes in these series were measured by correlating them with linear trends. The magnitude of a trend was estimated using Sen's Nonparametric Estimator of Slope approach. The Mann Kendall (MK) nonparametric test was applied to assess...