Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China; Institute of Smart City, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2019 Nov 25;693:133399. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.205. Epub 2019 Jul 15.
Lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are very sensitive to climate change and have expanded rapidly in recent decades. In this study, lake water storage change (LWSC) of 150 lakes since 1976 was estimated based on multi-temporal Landsat images and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data. The lakes were then separated into glacier-fed and non-glacier-fed lakes based on the second Chinese glacier inventory and basin boundaries. The results indicate that most lakes had a shrinking trend and total water storage decreased by 5.53 ± 0.4 km from 1976 to 1990; however, most lakes expanded and increased in total water storage by 110.15 ± 7.93 km from 1990 to 2013. The water storage increase in glacier-fed lakes was 84% of the total increase in water storage from 1990 to 2013. An analysis of the relationship between the lakes and climate indicators suggests that both precipitation and glacial meltwater were the most important factors in lake change, in contrast, changes in evaporation had a limited influence on lake level and volume changes. Based on an assumption of similar precipitation and evaporation across neighbouring closed basins, we compared differences in LWSC between glacier-fed and non-glacier-fed lakes to analyze the cause of lake change. Our results suggest that less precipitation was the primary cause for lake contractions from 1976 to 1990. Glacial meltwater contributed at least 43.5%, 46.4% and 58.7% to the total increased water storage for the periods 1990-2000, 2000-2005 and 2005-2013, respectively. The results further suggest that increasing glacial meltwater had a contribution to lake expansion equivalent to that of precipitation-evaporation during 1990-2013.
青藏高原上的湖泊对气候变化非常敏感，近几十年来迅速扩张。本研究基于多时相 Landsat 影像和航天飞机雷达地形任务数据，估算了自 1976 年以来 150 个湖泊的水量存储变化（LWSC）。根据中国第二次冰川编目和流域边界，将这些湖泊分为冰川补给和非冰川补给湖泊。结果表明，大多数湖泊呈收缩趋势，总水量从 1976 年到 1990 年减少了 5.53 ± 0.4km3；然而，从 1990 年到 2013 年，大多数湖泊扩张，总水量增加了 110.15 ± 7.93km3。冰川补给湖泊的储水增加量占 1990 年至 2013 年总储水增加量的 84%。湖泊与气候指标之间关系的分析表明，降水和冰川融水是湖泊变化的最重要因素，而蒸发变化对湖泊水位和体积变化的影响有限。基于相邻封闭流域降水和蒸发相似的假设，我们比较了冰川补给和非冰川补给湖泊之间的 LWSC 差异，以分析湖泊变化的原因。结果表明，1976 年至 1990 年湖泊收缩的主要原因是降水减少。冰川融水分别对 1990-2000 年、2000-2005 年和 2005-2013 年总增水量的贡献至少为 43.5%、46.4%和 58.7%。结果还表明，在 1990 年至 2013 年期间，冰川融水增加对湖泊扩张的贡献相当于降水-蒸发的贡献。
