An analysis of yearly trends in growing degree days and the relationship between growing degree day values and reference evapotranspiration in Turpan area, China

The growth and development of crops is commonly regarded as a function of time alone. However, this approach can be inadequate due to temperatures which vary from year to year caused by global climate change. This prompted the development of the growing degree day concept, which incorporates information on both the passage of time and the temperature experienced by the crop plant during that time. Crop water requirements, which are estimated by multiplying reference evapotranspiration values by a crop-specific coefficient, play a crucial role in the management of hydrologic cycles on arable land. Consequently, it would be useful to identify the relationships between cumulative growing degree days and reference evapotranspiration, in order to develop new methods for predicting crop growth and development periods and calculating reference evapotranspiration. This paper describes annual trends in cumulative growing degree days values and their impact on grape growth. Three different methods for calculating cumulative growing degree days values were evaluated as well. Several key findings were achieved. First, for the period between 1952 and 1995, the cumulative growing degree days values for specific days of the year were normally distributed. Second, the relationship between the relative cumulative growing degree days value and the passage of time can be accurately described by using a cubic polynomial function. Third, the day-to-day change in the average relative cumulative reference evapotranspiration can be described using an exponential function of time, which can be used to calculate the relative cumulative reference evapotranspiration value for any given day of the year. Fourth, there was a significant correlation between the relative cumulative growing degree days and cumulative reference evapotranspiration values during the period between grape budding and maturity, which can be described using a cubic polynomial function. Finally, a new method for determining the ET0 value for any given day of the year was developed; this method requires only a knowledge of the CGDD-at-year-end and no sophisticated meteorological data.