Location

The flux observation site of Shouyang is located in the Shouyang Scientific Observing and Experimental Station of Agro-Environment and Crop Water Productivity, Ministry of Agriculture, P.R.China. The station (37°45′ N, 113°12′E) is located in the eastern part of the Loess Plateau, belong to typical dryland agricultural areas of east Shanxi and west Henan province. The site is located in Shouyang County, Shanxi province. The altitude is 1202m, with mountain, flood land and low hills, dry plateau are dominant landscapes in this area.

Climatic

It is semi-humid but partial arid area. Mean annual temperature is 7.4°C. January is the coldest, and monthly mean temperature is -7.49℃; July is the hottest, and monthly mean temperature is 21.95℃. Accumulated temperature (10℃) is 2994±180 d•℃, and frost-free period is about 140d. Annual precipitation is about 481 mm, and interannual variation is large. The lowest annual precipitation is only about 300mm, and the largest annual precipitation is about 675mm. The precipitation is most in June to September, beyond 70% of total annual precipitation. The cropland of this area is basically no irrigation.

Vegetation and soil

Influenced by climate and geographical conditions, the heat conditions of this area can only meet the growth of one season thermophilic crops. Moreover, because the heat conditions are unstable, the use of middle and long development crop species and the adjustment of sowing time are impossible. The crop species is most food crops, such as maize, millet, sorghum, etc, and occupied 80% of cultivated areas. Economic crops, such as soybean, red bean sunflower, potato, etc. occupied about 15% of cultivated areas. The soil type is cinnamon soil, and soil texture is light loam. Soil organic matter is about 1.15%.

Observation system

RMET system, OPEC system, Bowen Ratio system, soil profile water content observation system, soil CO₂ efflux observation system are installed at the flux site

Principal Investigator

 Xurong Mei

E-mail: meixr@ieda.org.cn