Goh Cheng Leong Chapter 21 – Warm Temperate Eastern Margin (China) Climate YouTube Lecture Handouts

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Goh Cheng Leong Chapter 21: Warm Temperate Eastern Margin (China) Climate

Illustration: Goh Cheng Leong Chapter 21 – Warm Temperate Eastern Margin (China) Climate YouTube Lecture Handouts
  • More rainfall than Mediterranean in summer
  • Modified monsoonal climate – Temperate monsoon or China type
  • Also known as Gulf climate
  • Seen in SE USA, New South Wales (Eucalyptus) , Natal (cane sugar) , Parana-Paraguay-Uruguay (maize)
  • Onshore trade winds year round – without monsoonal variation – Natal type Climate

Climate

  • Warm moist summer & cool dry winters
  • - Strongly modified by maritime influence
  • Cold air from interior can bring down the temperature
  • Relative humidity – high in mid-summer when heat becomes oppressive
  • Rainfall is more than moderate – 25 - 60 inches
  • Good for agriculture and variety of crops
  • Densely populated
  • Uniform rainfall throughout the year (except Central China with distinct dry season)
  • Rain by convectional source or orographic rain in summer & by depressions in prolonged showers in winter

3 Types of Regions

China Type

  • Central and North China including South Japan
  • Great landmass induce pressure change between summer & winter
  • Intense heat in Heart of Asia creates low pressure in summer & brings SE monsoon – causing heavy rain (not that sudden & heavy as in India)
  • Winter – pressure gradient b/w cold Mongolia & Siberia & warm Pacific – outflow of air as NW monsoon (cold & dry with little rain with snow on windward slope of Shantung)
  • Has great annual range of temperature upto (Nanking) and even greater upto (Changan) in north while in warmer south the range is narrow upto (Hong Kong)
  • Occurrence of Typhoons – intense tropical cyclone in Pacific Ocean and move westward bordering South China Sea – common in late summer (July to Sept. – most disastrous) – E. g. , Swatow typhoon in 1922 – huge waves affecting 50,000 inhabitants

Gulf Type

  • SE USA – similar to China type – with less monsoonal characteristics
  • No complete seasonal reversal of wind as pressure gradient b/w America & Atlantic is less marked
  • Narrow range of temperature – due to Gulf Stream and on-shore trade winds
  • Summers as warm & pleasant (Miami as holiday resort - rarely snows in winter)
  • Heavy rainfall with no distinct dry period – abundant moisture & excess cultivation of cotton (cotton belts) and maize (corn belts)
  • Thunderstorms in summer & hurricanes in Sept & Oct
  • Some places – Montgomery (Alabama) – secondary maximum in late winter when cyclonic activities are greatest
  • Tornadoes due to intense local heating – follow narrow path but leave trail of destruction

Natal Type

  • Includes Natal, Eastern Australia & Brazil-Paraguay-Uruguay & Northern Argentina – all warm temperate eastern climate in southern hemisphere
  • No monsoonal characteristics – narrowness of continent and dominance of maritime influence
  • South East Trade winds bring even distribution of rainfall – mean monthly rainfall of 4 inches and annual amount of 48 inches (Durban – 45 inches to Asuncion – 52 inches)
  • Depression along southern edges lead to autumn or winter maximum (wettest month from March to July)
  • Small annual temperature range ()
  • Good for agriculture
  • Violent local storms
  • Southerly Buster (Cold wind along coast of New South Wales)
  • Pampero (cold wind along Argentina and Uruguay)
  • Berg (hot, dry wind in eastern Africa) – comparable to Fohn or Chinook – bring unpleasant high temperature and oppressive weather

Natural Vegetation

  • Eastern margins have more rainfall – looks green all the time
  • Lowlands – broadleaved forests & deciduous trees
  • Highlands – Conifers (pines and cypress)
  • Home to timber species
  • Eastern Australia – Eucalyptus (scanty foliage & thick fern undergrowth) in Australian Alps of Victoria & Blue Mountains of New South Wales
  • S. America – Parana pine, quebracho (axe-breaker, hardwood for tanning) & yerba mate (leaves used to make Paraguay tea – major export of Paraguay)
  • Natal – Palm trees, chestnut, ironwood, blackwood & wattle trees (for tanning & in coal mines as pit-props)
  • China & S. Japan – oak, camphor, camellia & magnolia
  • SE USA – walnut, oak, hickory, maple, pines & cultivation of cotton, maize and fruits

Economic Development

  • Most productive parts – summers as busiest part for farming – terraced hills and irrigated fields – most intensively tilled parts of earth
  • Monsoon China & South Japan – have 1βŸ‹3rd of world population – rice, tea and mulberry (sericulture)

Farming in Monsoon China

  • World՚s greatest rice growing areas – warm climate, wet throughout year, extensive lowland, fertile moisture retentive alluvial soil, tilting of land, water is enriched during floods, add organic wastes (ash, clippings, animal dung and human waste)
  • Most intensive areas – Sikiang, Yangtze Kiang & Hwang Ho (these are most densely populated as well)
  • Raise wet paddy or swamp rice in flooded fields
  • Farming on subsistence basis
  • Double and treble (triple) cropping to increase production
  • Milled rice – stable food for Orient – deficient diet

Agriculture in Gulf (America)

  • Lack of population pressure
  • Export crops (rice in Mississippi delta)
  • Corn or Maize: humid air, sunny summer & heavy showers (from Gulf to Great Lakes)
  • Corn belt – Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa & Indiana – half of world՚s corn production but 3% export – used to fatten animals (cattles and pigs) – fattened animals sold to meat plants in Chicago & Cincinnati for slaughtering – processed as corned beef or chilled beef
  • Corn is a native crop of native Indian in America but is consumed in less amount
  • Corn has prolific yield (twice yield per acre compared to wheat) – so is widely cultivated
  • Cotton: As plantation and cash crop (Negroes brought from Africa for cotton plantations) – hot long growing season with 200 frost free days and moderately high temperature & mature in 6 months, ample rain with annual precipitation of 40 inches
  • Frequent light showers to bright sunlight gives best yields – cotton belt limited to 20 inch isohyet on west and isotherm in north. In south (Gulf lands) heavy rain damages lint.
  • Gulf area - fruits, cane sugar, market gardening (Florida)
  • Cotton Belts – Mississippi flood plains, Black Prairies of Texas, Red Prairies of Oklahoma & Atlantic coastland of Georgia and South Carolina (Sea Island Cotton – long stapled with fiber length of 1.5 to 2.3 inches)
  • Disease affecting cotton – Boll-weevil – multiples rapidly and can breed over 10 million grubs within 1 season – responsible for westward migration of cotton belts – it affected in 1892 on eastern USA – eliminate it by aerial spraying with insecticide and burning of old cotton stalks
  • Tobacco: In Gulf, native crop of America – Virginia tobacco – from Turkish tobacco, Havanna Cigar, Malaysian Cheroot – supplies raw material for world՚s tobacco
  • Humid atmosphere, warm well drained soils – in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, N. & S. Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee

Cropping in Southern Hemisphere

  • Natal: cane sugar, cotton, tobacco with irrigation practices
  • Maize: used as mealie (food for Africans) & silage (animal fodder for cattle rearing) – low yield as compared to USA – crop rotation to arrest maize monoculture
  • S. America – rain < 40 inches - cattle and sheep for meat, wool and hides - natural pastures as forage for cattle and sheep
  • Product from cattle & sheep – 3βŸ‹4th export of Uruguay – remaining export from wheat and flax
  • S. Brazil - rain > 40 inches – forest replaces grasses – cultivation of Paraguay tea & lumbering of Parana pine
  • Australia - Forest are cleared for settlement and dairying – milk, butter, cheese, cotton, cane sugar and maize (eastern margins were 1st to be colonized from Port Jackson or present Sydney)

✍ Manishika