Spatiotemporal Changes in Precipitation during the Summer Maize Growing Season in the North China Plain and Analysis of Its Causes

Abstract

The North China Plain is an important summer maize production region in China. Investigating spatiotemporal variation patterns of precipitation during the summer maize growing season will guide the prevention of droughts and floods and ensure food production. Daily precipitation data during the summer maize growing season in the North China Plain from 1960–2020 were used to analyze spatiotemporal changes in precipitation, examine the migration patterns of precipitation barycenters, and quantitatively analyze the effects of ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) warm and cold events on precipitation variation characteristics. Results revealed that in the past 61 years, precipitation showed an insignificant decreasing trend; however, there were considerable differences detected in the spatial distribution layouts of precipitation between different developmental stages. The precipitation distribution layout during the sowing–jointing stage was mainly “North–South”, the zero contour was near 36° N, and the other developmental stages were mainly “global” with phases that were the opposite of one another. Moreover, the precipitation barycenter during the jointing–flowering stage showed a significant southward migration. Precipitation during the three developmental stages negatively correlated with warm events, precipitation during the flowering–maturation stage positively correlated with cold events, the relationship between precipitation changes during warm and cold events and the intensity of warm and cold events was not significant, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) was the main climatic factor that affected precipitation changes during the summer maize-growing season in the North China Plain.