Lin et al. (2025) Accelerating increases in soil heatwaves and cropland exposure in China

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-15
• Authors: Lijie Lin, Sijia Wu, Manqing Shi, Yu Tang, Ming Luo
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae2ca5

Research Groups

[Information not available in the provided abstract.]

Short Summary

This study presents a nationwide assessment of historical soil heatwave changes across Mainland China, revealing that since 1960, soil heatwave frequency, duration, and intensity have increased at all depths, with significant acceleration in recent decades and increasing exposure for croplands.

Objective

• To conduct a nationwide assessment of historical soil heatwave changes across the Mainland of China using an observational homogenized soil temperature dataset.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Mainland of China (nationwide).
• Temporal Scale: Since 1960, with specific analysis periods including 1960–2017 and 1990–2017.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: [Information not available in the provided abstract.]
• Data sources: Observational homogenized soil temperature dataset.

Main Results

• Deeper soils experience less intense but longer-lasting heatwaves compared to shallower soils.
• Since 1960, soil heatwave frequency, duration, and intensity have increased at all depths.
• Deeper soils show greater increases in duration and smaller increases in intensity than shallower soils.
• These trends have accelerated recently, by approximately 50% in shallow soils and 100% in deep soils during 1990–2017, relative to the 1960–2017 period.
• Approximately 60.4% of China’s croplands are facing increasing exposure to soil heatwaves, particularly in major breadbaskets like the North China Plain.

Contributions

• Provides the first nationwide assessment of historical soil heatwave changes across Mainland China using observational data.
• Quantifies the differential characteristics and trends of soil heatwaves at various depths (shallow vs. deep).
• Highlights the accelerated increase in soil heatwave trends in recent decades.
• Identifies the significant and increasing exposure of China's croplands to soil heatwaves.

Funding

[Information not available in the provided abstract.]

Citation

@article{Lin2025Accelerating,
  author = {Lin, Lijie and Wu, Sijia and Shi, Manqing and Tang, Yu and Luo, Ming},
  title = {Accelerating increases in soil heatwaves and cropland exposure in China},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/ae2ca5},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae2ca5}
}