14 December 2007 | EN | 中文 Plantation in China's Huairou
district [BEIJING] Climate change has helped plants in China
become more robust, according to a study by Chinese scientists.
Scientists at the Beijing Normal University studied the link
between climate factors and changes in plants' net primary
productivity — a term used to evaluate the net reserve energy
plants need during growth — between 1982 and 1999. "If the net
primary productivity of a plant is high, it means the plant
grows more healthily," says lead author Zhu Wenquan of the
College of Resources at the university. Zhu and colleagues
analysed climate-observation data for the period alongside
remote-sensing data on plantations in different regions in
China. They then determined the specific climate factors —
sunshine, temperature and precipitation — that had the biggest
impact on plant growth in these regions. They found that low
temperatures in northeast China and the Tibet–Qinghai highlands
contribute most to poor plant growth. In northwestern