Abstract: In order to explore the sensitivity of rice growth and development to climate change, and to estimate the contribution of climate change and varieties change to the change of rice phenology in South China, the phenological and meteorological observation data of double cropping rice planting in South China from 1981 to 2013 were selected for analysis. Theil-Sen estimation linear tendency rate and Mann-Kendall trend significance test were used to analyze the change trend and spatial distribution characteristics of double cropping rice phenology. Different from other regions, the sowing date of early rice in South China is ahead of schedule and the mature period of late rice is delayed slightly. The vegetative growth period of early and late rice was shortened, while the reproductive growth period was prolonged. The length of vegetative and reproductive growth periods of early rice and late rice increased with the increase of precipitation and sunshine hours, and decreased with the increase of temperature; the length of growth period was shortened by 0.5−4.7 days when the average temperature increased by 1℃. The analysis of the contribution rate of climate change and varieties to the impact of rice phenology showed that the influence of varieties change on the long-term length of early and late rice was greater than that of climate change. In the past 30 years, early rice tended to choose the varieties with long vegetative and reproductive growth period, late rice tends to choose varieties with short vegetative growth period and long reproductive growth period.

Key words: Rice, Phenology, Growth phases, Climate change, Contribution