Evaporation variability of Nam Co Lake in the Tibetan Plateau and its role in recent rapid lake expansion

Ma, Ning; Szilágyi, József; Niu, Guo Yue; Zhang, Yinsheng; Zhang, Teng; Wang, Binbin; Wu, Yanhong

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.03.030

Cited by 107 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Lake water surface temperature (LWST) has been regarded as a critical parameter in controlling functioning processes in aquatic ecosystems, e.g., physical, chemical and biological processes [1,2], and serious ecological consequences may be caused by lake warming [3,4]. As demonstrated by [5], some of the large lakes across the world show obviously increasing temperature as a result of climate change [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Variations of Lake Surface Temperature across the Tibetan Plateau Using MODIS LST Product

Song

Wang

et al. 2016

Remote Sensing

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Abstract:Satellite remote sensing provides a powerful tool for assessing lake water surface temperature (LWST) variations, particularly for large water bodies that reside in remote areas. In this study, the MODIS land surface temperature (LST) product level 3 (MOD11A2) was used to investigate the spatiotemporal variation of LWST for 56 large lakes across the Tibetan Plateau and examine the factors affecting the LWST variations during 2000-2015. The results show that the annual cycles of LWST across the Tibetan Plateau ranged from −19.5 • C in early February to 25.1 • C in late July. Obvious diurnal temperature differences (DTDs) were observed for various lakes, ranging from 1.3 to 8.9 • C in summer, and large and deep lakes show less DTDs variations. Overall, a LWST trend cannot be detected for the 56 lakes in the plateau over the past 15 years. However, 38 (68%) lakes show a temperature decrease trend with a mean rate of −0.06 • C/year, and 18 (32%) lakes show a warming rate of (0.04 • C/year) based on daytime MODIS measurements. With respect to nighttime measurements, 27 (48%) lakes demonstrate a temperature increase with a mean rate of 0.051 • C/year, and 29 (52%) lakes exhibit a temperature decrease trend with a mean rate of −0.062 • C/year. The rate of LWST change was statistically significant for 19 (21) lakes, including three (eight) warming and 17 (13) cooling lakes for daytime (nighttime) measurements, respectively. This investigation indicates that lake depth and area (volume), attitude, geographical location and water supply sources affect the spatiotemporal variations of LWST across the Tibetan Plateau.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Variations of Lake Surface Temperature across the Tibetan Plateau Using MODIS LST Product

Song

Wang

et al. 2016

Remote Sensing

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“…In addition to the surface water quantity variations caused by precipitation, glacier ablation [25,26], surface runoff [27] and evaporation, the water level rise and lake surface expansion in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau lake area (e.g., Nam Co Lake) are affected by groundwater quantity variations caused by groundwater infiltration and the groundwater supply from frozen soil. The increase in surface temperature can increase the supply of groundwater runoff and lead to an increase in the groundwater volume.…”

Section: Influence Of Dynamic Groundwater Quantity Variationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Variations in the Quantity of Groundwater Flow in Nam Co Lake

Huang

Farooq

et al. 2018

Water

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This paper aims to calculate and analyze the spatial and temporal variations in the groundwater flow quantity in Nam Co Lake based on the water balance principle. The results show that a large amount of groundwater was gradually lost and that, groundwater loss decreased from 1.9 billion m 3 to 1.5 billion m 3 from the period of 1980-1984 to 1995-2009. The comparative analysis in the current study indicates that the decrease in the groundwater index has a strong linear relationship with the temperature of the ground surface on the Tibetan Plateau, with a correlation coefficient as high as 0.92. Moreover, environmental variations such as large-scale engineering construction projects and increases in water storage may have played dominant roles in the sudden changes in the water quantities of plateau lakes (e.g., Nam Co Lake) during the periods of 1990-1995 and 2000-2009. The increased water levels resulted in reduced groundwater losses, which may lead to the substantial expansion or gradual shrinkage of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau lakes over short periods of time. The results of this study provide an important reference for studying the mechanisms of lake water level changes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

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“…However, for convenience and simplicity, researchers often locate the E601 pan on land rather than on the water, which may inaccurately represent open water evaporation due to different underlying conditions; therefore, evaporation data collected in this way must be converted to actual open water evaporation using a coefficient, which increases uncertainty in measured data [15,16,29]. Researchers also applied the eddy covariance (EC) method, which is theoretically based on the correlation of vertical wind speed and air moisture content fluctuation and an accurate way to measure open water evaporation with fine accuracy [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Although the EC method and pan method can both provide convincing and reasonable lake evaporation data [41,44], we cannot ignore that in a remote area with tough residence conditions, it is very hard to carry out in situ experiments, especially since EC equipment's durability and reliability may be affected by the extreme temperature (up to 41 • C and down to −36 • C) and strong wind (up to 16.5 m/s) in this hyper-arid study area [10], while the E601 pan, with three modifications, can meet our need of obtaining the actual lake evaporation with satisfying adaptability and affordable cost.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers also applied the eddy covariance (EC) method, which is theoretically based on the correlation of vertical wind speed and air moisture content fluctuation and an accurate way to measure open water evaporation with fine accuracy [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Although the EC method and pan method can both provide convincing and reasonable lake evaporation data [41,44], we cannot ignore that in a remote area with tough residence conditions, it is very hard to carry out in situ experiments, especially since EC equipment's durability and reliability may be affected by the extreme temperature (up to 41 • C and down to −36 • C) and strong wind (up to 16.5 m/s) in this hyper-arid study area [10], while the E601 pan, with three modifications, can meet our need of obtaining the actual lake evaporation with satisfying adaptability and affordable cost. Another approach for quantifying lake evaporation is model estimation; many studies have shown the reliability and practicality of this method, including the Dalton model [45], Bowen ratio-energy balance (BREB) method [46], Penman model [47], Priestley-Taylor model [48], water budget method [49], complementary relationship method [50][51][52] and energy balance method [53,54], etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another approach for quantifying lake evaporation is model estimation; many studies have shown the reliability and practicality of this method, including the Dalton model [45], Bowen ratio-energy balance (BREB) method [46], Penman model [47], Priestley-Taylor model [48], water budget method [49], complementary relationship method [50][51][52] and energy balance method [53,54], etc. Table 1 shows a summary of relevant literature on open water evaporation researches with measurement and estimation methods [4,7,9,41,53,[55][56][57][58][59][60].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lake Evaporation in a Hyper-Arid Environment, Northwest of China—Measurement and Estimation

Liu

Wang

et al. 2016

Water

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Lake evaporation is a critical component of the hydrological cycle. Quantifying lake evaporation in hyper-arid regions by measurement and estimation can both provide reliable potential evaporation (ET 0 ) reference and promote a deeper understanding of the regional hydrological process and its response towards changing climate. We placed a floating E601 evaporation pan on East Juyan Lake, which is representative of arid regions' terminal lakes, to measure daily evaporation and conducted simultaneous bankside synoptic observation during the growing season of 2013-2015. A semi-empirical evaporation model derived from Dalton model was parameterized and validated with measured data. The model was then used to estimate lake evaporation during 2002-2015. According to in situ measurements, maximum, minimum and mean lake evaporation were 8.1, 3.7 and 6.5 mm/day, and growing season evaporation was 1183.3 mm (~80% of the annual amount). Adding up non-growing season evaporation that we converted from φ20 pan evaporation at Ejina weather station, the annual mean lake evaporation, 1471.3 mm, was representative of lower Heihe River's ET 0 . Model inter-comparison implied our model performed well both in simplicity and accuracy and has potential utilization in a data-sparse area. In 2002-2015, estimated mean daily evaporation was 6.5 mm/day and growing season evaporation was 1233.7 mm. Trend analysis of estimated evaporation proved the evaporation paradox's existence in this hyper-arid region and validated complementary relationship theory's adaptability.

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Evaporation variability of Nam Co Lake in the Tibetan Plateau and its role in recent rapid lake expansion

Cited by 107 publications

References 66 publications

Spatiotemporal Variations of Lake Surface Temperature across the Tibetan Plateau Using MODIS LST Product

Spatiotemporal Variations of Lake Surface Temperature across the Tibetan Plateau Using MODIS LST Product

Temporal Variations in the Quantity of Groundwater Flow in Nam Co Lake

Lake Evaporation in a Hyper-Arid Environment, Northwest of China—Measurement and Estimation

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