Abstract: Based on the observed data of precipitation and related meteorological factors at Subei Meteorological Station during the period of 1973-2010, in this paper the wavelet analysis was used to analyze the response of precipitation to climate change in the desert ecotone in Subei County, Gansu Province. The results are as follows ① Precipitation was significantly increased in the study period, in which the anomaly trend coefficients of annual, spring, autumn and winter precipitation were 0.260, 0.792, 0.507 and 0.063 respectively, but that of summer precipitation was -1.396, which showed that the summer precipitation was in a decrease trend; ② The multiple-time and multiple-scale analysis on precipitation revealed that the 4-5 a small-scale period occurred after the late-1990s, precipitation was increased in three periods but decreased in four periods; the periodical fluctuation of 10-19 a and 30-35 a large-scale periods of precipitation was very significant; ③ There was a significant response relationship between precipitation and temperature, sunshine duration, evaporation and surface temperature in summer. The changes of precipitation and other meteorological factors affected jointly the local climate change. The anomalies of air temperature, sunshine duration, evaporation and surface temperature became negative with the increase of precipitation, and evaporation was closely related to precipitation.

Key words: precipitation, time scale, climate, change, meteorological factor, desert ecotone, Subei County, Gansu Province