Changing features of the climate and glaciers in China's monsoonal temperate glacier region

Abstract

Climatic data, ice core records, the tree ring index, and recorded glacier variations have been used to reconstruct a history of climatic and glacial changes in the monsoonal temperate glacier region of southwestern China during the last 400 years. The region's temperature has increased in a fluctuating manner during the twentieth century after two cold stages of the Little Ice Age (seventeenth to nineteenth centuries), with a corresponding retreat of most of the glaciers, against a background of global warming. Retreat rates accelerated after the 1980s. The few advancing glaciers that did exist have started to retreat in recent years. The amount, trend, and amplitude of variation of precipitation have differed in different parts of the region. The Dasuopu ice core, from the western part of the region, shows a decreasing trend in precipitation, the converse of the trend in temperature. In the eastern part of the region, however, a rising trend of rainfall has accompanied increasing temperatures as a result of the variable atmospheric circulations from different sources. The southwest monsoon, the principal controlling factor in the Chinese monsoonal temperate glacier region, can be classified into the Indian monsoon and the Bengal monsoon. The former passes across the Indian Peninsula from the Arabian Sea and transports vapor for precipitation in the western part of the monsoonal temperate glacier region. The Bengal monsoon, originating in the Bay of Bengal, is the major source of precipitation in the eastern part of the region. The eastern part is also influenced by the southeast monsoon arriving from the western Pacific, and the western part is affected in winter by the southern branch of the westerly circulation. This complex atmospheric situation results in differing patterns of precipitation in the western and eastern zones. Although it is clear that both temperature and precipitation affect the glaciers, further work is needed to confirm which of these is the major factor influencing present glacier change.

The footprint of Asian monsoon dynamics in the mass and energy balance of a Tibetan glacier

“…on interannual variability alone). Despite the heterogeneous glacier changes on the Tibetan Plateau, which result from interacting large-scale atmospheric flows and local relief factors (He et al, 2003;Fujita and Nuimura, 2011;Scherler et al, 2011), a common feature is the strong sensitivity to climatic conditions in summer (wet season). This was found by all previous SEB studies and stems from the regional climatic conditions, which show peaks in the annual air temperature and precipitation cycle at the same time.…”

Anomalous temperature–growth response of Abies faxoniana to sustained freezing stress along elevational gradients in China’s Western Sichuan Province

“…The resulting landscape patterns include extreme topographic gradients between deeply incised parallel gorges of approximately 1,000 m in elevation and glaciated peaks (7,556 m a.s.l.) within a distance of less than 30 km (He et al 2003). The pronounced elevation climatic gradients lead to a differentiation of the mountain forests into several elevation belts (Shen et al 2004).…”

Seasonal Variability and Evolution of Glaciochemistry at An Alpine Temperate Glacier on the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau

“…Yulong is located at the southeastern Tibetan Plateau and is at the transition zone from the plateau to the Himalayan range; (b) modern temperate glaciers distribute in Mt. Yulong, which is located at the southern Hengduan mountains of China (these glaciers are highly sensitive to climate and environmental changes [22]); (c) the seasonal changes in atmospheric circulations result in marked seasonal variations of the chemical content in the precipitation and snowpacks.…”