The Taihang Mountain Region of North China is Experiencing A Significant Warming Trend

The Earth’s climate has warmed by approximately 0.6 °C over the last century, but temperature change in the Taihang Mountain region—an important transition zone in North China which functions as an ecological barrier for Beijing, Tianjin, and other big cities—is still unknown. In this study, we analyze the spatial and temporal trends in the average annual and seasonal surface air temperature in the Taihang Mountain region from 1968 to 2017. The effect of elevation, longitude, latitude, percent forestland, percent farmland, and gross domestic product (GDP) on temperature was also determined. Our results show that the Taihang Mountain has warmed by 0.3 °C/decade over the past five decades. Partitioned seasonally, average warming was 0.38, 0.14, 0.21, and 0.47 °C/decade in spring, summer, fall, and winter, respectively. Elevation and latitude were significantly negatively correlated with temperature but had no correlation with the temporal warming trend (i.e., the Z value from a Mann–Kendall test). The Z value was significantly negatively correlated with percent forestland and positively correlated with GDP, indicating that economic development has induced warming, but afforestation may reduce the rate of warming increase. Together, our results provide important insights into the rates and drivers of climate change within mountainous regions.