Extensive and drastically different alpine lake changes on Asia's high plateaus during the past four decades

Zhang, Guoqing; Yao, Tandong; Piao, Shilong; Bolch, Tobias; Xie, Hongjie; Chen, Deliang; Gao, Yanhong; O’Reilly, Catherine M.; Shum, C. K.; Yang, Kun; Yi, Shuang; Lei, Yajie; Wang, Weicai; He, Yeping; Shang, Ke; Yang, Xiankun; Zhang, Hongbo

doi:10.1002/2016gl072033

Cited by 241 publications

(177 citation statements)

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“…The increased change in lake area, level, and water volume has been a quite large contrast to the decreased lake water in other Asian plateaus [ Zhang et al , ] and the world's other continents [ Pekel et al , ]. In addition, the increase of groundwater storage from this study is also comparable to the depletion of groundwater resources in adjacent India [ Asoka et al , ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 48%

“…After that, lake area presents a continuous increase, but a stable, even slight decrease of lake area is mapped in several recent years. The time series of lake area in the Inner TP is overall consistent with that for the entire TP, but the lakes of the Inner TP expanded more rapidly than all lakes, and lake area variations in the TP are dominated by those in the Inner TP [ Zhang et al , ]. The difference especially appeared after 1998; i.e., the lake area in the Inner TP increased faster than the changes in the entire TP.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

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Lake volume and groundwater storage variations in Tibetan Plateau's endorheic basin

Zhang

Yao

Shum

et al. 2017

Geophysical Research Letters

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The Tibetan Plateau (TP), the highest and largest plateau in the world, with complex and competing cryospheric‐hydrologic‐geodynamic processes, is particularly sensitive to anthropogenic warming. The quantitative water mass budget in the TP is poorly known. Here we examine annual changes in lake area, level, and volume during 1970s–2015. We find that a complex pattern of lake volume changes during 1970s–2015: a slight decrease of −2.78 Gt yr−1 during 1970s–1995, followed by a rapid increase of 12.53 Gt yr−1 during 1996–2010, and then a recent deceleration (1.46 Gt yr−1) during 2011–2015. We then estimated the recent water mass budget for the Inner TP, 2003–2009, including changes in terrestrial water storage, lake volume, glacier mass, snow water equivalent (SWE), soil moisture, and permafrost. The dominant components of water mass budget, namely, changes in lake volume (7.72 ± 0.63 Gt yr−1) and groundwater storage (5.01 ± 1.59 Gt yr−1), increased at similar rates. We find that increased net precipitation contributes the majority of water supply (74%) for the lake volume increase, followed by glacier mass loss (13%), and ground ice melt due to permafrost degradation (12%). Other term such as SWE (1%) makes a relatively small contribution. These results suggest that the hydrologic cycle in the TP has intensified remarkably during recent decades.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 48%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Lake volume and groundwater storage variations in Tibetan Plateau's endorheic basin

Zhang

Yao

Shum

et al. 2017

Geophysical Research Letters

Self Cite

333

241

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“…Although the lakes here are relatively small, they are representative of those found in many high‐elevation environments—such as the Alps, Andes, and Tibetan Plateau—where the same interplay of evaporation and groundwater outflow may exist (Ma et al, ; Zhang et al, ; Zhang, Yao, Piao, et al, ; Zhou et al, ). Important lake‐groundwater interactions can therefore be expected in watersheds where permeable substrates are prevalent, but dissimilarities in the geological and weathering histories of mountain ranges likely lead to substantial differences in the abundance of lakes with groundwater interactions (Almendinger, ; Liu et al, ; Muir et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Although small lakes (<0.01 km 2 ) are often overlooked in aquatic studies (Verpoorter et al, 2014), they represent ∼15% of the 4.2×10 6 km 2 covered by natural lakes and their ecological and hydrological importance has been emphasized in recent years (Downing et al, 2006;Downing, 2010;Winslow et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2015). Because they often fill shallow depressions in steep, mountainous terrain, small lakes collect and store snowmelt-derived surface runoff and wind-blown snow that may otherwise be exported out of the watershed and may influence adjacent stream dynamics in ways similar to large lakes (Clow et al, 2003;Liu et al, 2004;McClymont et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2015;Zhang, Yao, Piao, et al, 2017). As such, small lakes may be important for controlling the water budgets of critical headwaters areas, particularly late in the growing season when snowmelt has subsided.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Are Some Rocky Mountain Lakes Ephemeral?

Shuman

Parsekian

Mercer

2018

Water Resources Research

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Small mountain lakes function as temporary storage basins for rain and snowmelt‐derived water. Many small lakes lose water seasonally, but questions remain about the processes involved and effects on watershed hydrology. Evaporation and groundwater outflow from lakes may influence baseflow in streams, hydrologic connections among lakes, and water fluxes from a watershed. To evaluate the role of small mountain lakes in watershed hydrology and the dominant pathways of water loss, we studied the water balances of four shallow, closed‐basin, subalpine lakes in southern Wyoming that lose up to 99% of their volumes between early summer and late fall. We tested the performance of seven evaporation models, compared observed rates of water loss with simulations of evaporation and drainage, and conducted geophysical surveys to evaluate the hydrologic environment between lakes. Our results show that groundwater outflow, rather than evaporation, can dominate water loss and cause closed‐basin mountain lakes to be ephemeral. Groundwater fluxes may contribute to varied rates and timing of water loss from the lakes. Evaporation accounted for 14% of water loss in a lake that overlays thin (<0.5 m) sediments and fractured bedrock and 83% in a lake underlain by >3 m of sediments and clay. Gradual recharge of groundwater (<18,000 m3·km−2·day−1) from each study lake likely helps sustain baseflow in streams once snowmelt has subsided. Total water loss from closed‐basin, subalpine lakes may therefore help to maintain baseflow of rivers in late summer, but their impact varies based on geological context and snowmelt availability.

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“…Because of recent climatic change in the inner TP (e.g. Yang et al, 2014), most of the lakes are expanding significantly (Song et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2017). For example, the largest endorheic lake (Siling Co) has expanded by about 40% since the 1970s, with a remarkable rate of acceleration since 1999 (Lei et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observational evidence of the combined influence of atmospheric circulations and local factors on near‐surface meteorology in Dagze Co basin, inner Tibetan Plateau

Yang

Guo

Wang

2017

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Based on meteorological observations of three automatic weather stations (AWSs), spanning an altitudinal range of 1400 m from 4480 to 5880 m above sea level (m a.s.l.) during August 2015 to August 2016, this study presents a description of the spatio‐temporal characteristics of the near‐surface meteorology of the Dagze Co (lake) basin in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau. We also investigated the influence of synoptic atmospheric systems and local factors on the meteorological characteristics. We found that the onset and withdrawal of the South Asian summer monsoon triggered seasonal shift in meteorological variables including wind direction, precipitation, and relative humidity. In addition, the magnitude of various meteorological factors during the monsoonal period is clearly associated with the intensity of the South Asian summer monsoon, which subsequently controls the lake water budget of Dagze Co. Moreover, both the local topography and the existence of the lake contribute significantly to the altitudinal variation of several meteorological factors. For example, the orographic precipitation near the glaciated area at 5880 m a.s.l. was about three times greater than in the area adjacent to the lake. The dominating katabatic wind over these glaciated areas weakens the up‐valley wind and consequently wind speed tends to decrease with increasing elevation during the monsoonal season. In addition, different levels of cloudiness between the low‐altitude lake and the glaciated mountain area contribute to a 40–50% reduction in incoming short‐wave radiation receipt. Our observations will hopefully contribute to future glacio‐hydrological studies and will help to evaluate statistically/dynamically downscaled climate fields in the interior of Tibetan Plateau which contains numerous lakes and glaciers.

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Extensive and drastically different alpine lake changes on Asia's high plateaus during the past four decades

Cited by 241 publications

References 65 publications

Lake volume and groundwater storage variations in Tibetan Plateau's endorheic basin

Lake volume and groundwater storage variations in Tibetan Plateau's endorheic basin

Why Are Some Rocky Mountain Lakes Ephemeral?

Observational evidence of the combined influence of atmospheric circulations and local factors on near‐surface meteorology in Dagze Co basin, inner Tibetan Plateau

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