Temperatures in northwest China's Qaidam Basin are rising faster than the rest of the country as a result of climate chang, Chinese meteorologists said Tuesday.

The rapid rise in temperatures could increase the long-term frequency of droughts and farming pests in the basin to the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, they warned.

"The average temperature in the basin has increased at a rate of 0.44 degrees Celsius every 10 years in the past four decades, much faster than the country's average of 0.05 to 0.08 degrees every 10 years," said Gouri Dorje, deputy head of the Meteorological Bureau of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai.

He said the bureau studied climate data from the basin from 1961 to 2008, which also showed that the annual rainfall of the basin had increased significantly, expanding lake sizes and raising river levels.

"For example, the Hala Lake, formed by melting glaciers, was 7.38 square kilometers larger in 2008 than its size measured in 2005," he said.

Meteorologists with the bureau predicted the temperature in the basin would be 0.5 degrees higher in the next 10 to 20 years than the average of the 1990s.

"The basin will receive 5 to 19 percent more precipitation and 10 percent more river run-off in the next decade, compared with the average in the 1990s, which would be conducive to the rehabilitation of the grasslands in the short run," said Dorje.

However, he warned the rising temperatures could cause more climate-driven disasters such as droughts and pests in the grassland region in the long term.

The Qaidam Basin covers 250,000 square km in Qinghai Province and is known as resource-rich with salt lakes, petroleum, natural gas and other abundant mineral resources.

Dorje said that the climate warming would likely increase farming costs. The study would provide the basic scientific evidence for agricultural planning departments to draw up countermeasures to the problems.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2009)