Evidence of growing season extension in temperate eastern China

Using plant phenology and satellite data and a surface-satellite extrapolation technique, we found a significant delay of leaf coloration dates and leaf fall dates but a less pronounced advance of leaf unfolding dates in different latitudinal zones and the whole region of temperate eastern China from 1982 to 1993. The phenological growing season extended on average by 1.4-3.6 days per year in the northern zones and by 1.4 days per year in the whole region. The apparent delay in the end date of the growing season associated with a dominantly regional cooling from late spring to summer, whereas the insignificant advancement in the beginning date of the growing season related to unsteady changes of temperature trends from late winter to spring. On the interannual level, the beginning and end dates of the growing season correlate closely with mean air temperatures from February to April and from May to June, respectively. This finding suggests that there are diversified phenological fingerprints of climate change impacts in different parts of the world.