“…Problems are more serious in the northern part of the NCP, in which there is less natural precipitation; the groundwater table at the Luancheng Agricultural Ecosystem Experiment Station has decreased by more than 20 m within about 30 years (Chen et al, 2003;Hu and Cheng, 2011), and the groundwater depression cones in Beijing, Shijiazhuang and Cangzhou continue to expand (Jiang and Zhang, 2004;Sun et al, 2011). Of the agricultural crops in the NCP, winter wheat plays a key role in the development of severe water scarcity and in the over-exploitation of groundwater, because more than 70% of irrigation water (blue water) is consumed by winter wheat (Li et al, , 2008Sun et al, 2010). Recent studies have found large, spatially continuous areas in the northern part of the NCP in which winter wheat and summer maize are being replaced by spring crops; this has been termed "the spring corn planting belt phenomenon" (Feng et al, 2007;Huang et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2014).…”