Abstract: Degree of adaption is one of the key components of adaptability processes under climate change. In this paper, we established the concepts and methods of degree of adaption (DA) in order to comparably analyze the DA of wheat in area south and north of the Huaihe River in Henan Province. Results demonstrate that the climate dividing line is not the mainstream areas of Huaihe River, but the largest tributary of the area is located in were the further north, about 300 km away from the original zone. And the spatial variation of DA of winter wheat is approximately distributed around this area. The DA of the area, which is to the south of the dividing line of the Huaihe River, is 62.57%, which is higher than 56.81% in the northern area. Therefore there is still a large space which requires the human regulation and control to adapt the wheat to the climate change. And the pressure on human control in the northern area is greater than in the southern. As regards to the annual change, accompanied by the abrupt climate change in the 1980s, the temperature DA surged but the moisture DA plunged. In the following periods when the climate became stable, DA kept an increasing tendency. However the increasing speed of DA declined in the early 21st century when a plunge trend appeared, indicating that the negative impact on wheat from global warming has become increasingly prominent.

Key words: climate change, degree of adaption, Henan Province, Huaihe River, northward-shift, wheat