Permafrost on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) has undergone degradation as a result of recent climate change. This may alter the thermo‐hydrological processes and unlock soil organic carbon, and thereby affect local hydrological, ecological, and climatic systems. The relationships between permafrost and climate change have received extensive attention, and in this paper we review climate change for permafrost regions of the QTP over the past 30 years. We summarize the current state and changes in permafrost distribution and thickness, ground temperature, and ground ice conditions. We focus on changes in permafrost thermal state and in active‐layer thickness (ALT). Possible future changes in ground temperature and ALT are also discussed. Finally, we discuss the changes in hydrological processes and to ecosystems caused by permafrost degradation. Air temperature and ground temperature in the permafrost regions of the QTP have increased from 1980 to 2018, and the active layer has been thickening at a rate of 19.5 cm per decade. The response of permafrost to climate change is not as fast as in some reports, and permafrost degradation is slower than projected by models that do not account for conditions deep in permafrost.
Uranium-series dating of oxygen and carbon isotope records for stalagmite SJ3 collected in Songjia Cave, central China, shows significant variation in past climate and environment during the period 20–10 ka. Stalagmite SJ3 is located more than 1000 km inland of the coastal Hulu Cave in East China and more than 700 km north of the Dongge Cave in Southwest China and despite minor differences, displays a clear first-order similarity with the Hulu and Dongge records. The coldest climatic phase since the Last Glacial Maximum, which is associated with the Heinrich Event 1 in the North Atlantic region, was clearly recorded in SJ3 between 17.6 and 14.5 ka, in good agreement in timing, duration and extent with the records from Hulu and Dongge caves and the Greenland ice core. The results indicate that there have been synchronous and significant climatic changes across monsoonal China and strong teleconnections between the North Atlantic and East Asia regions during the period 20–10 ka. This is much different from the Holocene Optimum which shows a time shift of more than several thousands years from southeast coastal to inland China. It is likely that temperature change at northern high latitudes during glacial periods exerts stronger influence on the Asian summer monsoon relative to insolation and appears to be capable of perturbing large-scale atmospheric/oceanic circulation patterns in the Northern Hemisphere and thus monsoonal rainfall and paleovegetation in East Asia. Climatic signals in the North Atlantic region propagate rapidly to East Asia during glacial periods by influencing the winter land–sea temperature contrast in the East Asian monsoon region.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.