Precipitation variability and response to changing climatic condition in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin, China

Sang, Yan‐Fang; Singh, Vijay P.; Gong, Tongliang; Xu, Kang; Sun, Fubao; Liu, Changming; Liu, Wenbin; Ruizhi, Chen

doi:10.1002/2016jd025370

Cited by 61 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Obviously, there are great geographical differences of growing season NDVI in the YZR basin, which is closely associated with the diverse climate conditions [76,77]. The Indian monsoon is weakened by barrier effect of the mountains, resulting in precipitation and surface air temperature decreasing from the southeast to the northwest of the YZR basin [78], which is consistent with the vegetation spatial distribution pattern (Figure 3), implying that the water and heat characteristics have a considerably important role in vegetation cover. In addition, the vegetation spatial distribution is also determined by vegetation types [79], which was illustrated by the combination of Figures 1c and 3 in the YZR basin.…”

Section: Temporal and Spatial Variationssupporting

confidence: 70%

Greening Implication Inferred from Vegetation Dynamics Interacted with Climate Change and Human Activities over the Southeast Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Liu

et al. 2019

Remote Sensing

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Vegetation dynamics are sensitive to climate change and human activities, as vegetation interacts with the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The Yarlung Zangbo River (YZR) basin, with the vulnerable ecological environment, has experienced a series of natural disasters since the new millennium. Therefore, in this study, the vegetation dynamic variations and their associated responses to environmental changes in the YZR basin were investigated based on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) data from 2000 to 2016. Results showed that (1) the YZR basin showed an obvious vegetation greening process with a significant increase of the growing season NDVI (Zc = 2.31, p < 0.05), which was mainly attributed to the wide greening tendency of the downstream region that accounted for over 50% area of the YZR basin. (2) Regions with significant greening accounted for 25.4% of the basin and were mainly concentrated in the Nyang River and Parlung Tsangpo River sub-basins. On the contrary, the browning regions accounted for <25% of the basin and were mostly distributed in the urbanized cities of the midstream, implying a significant influence of human activities on vegetation greening. (3) The elevation dependency of the vegetation in the YZR basin was significant, showing that the vegetation of the low-altitude regions was better than that of the high-altitude regions. The greening rate exhibited a significantly more complicated relationship with the elevation, which increased with elevated altitude (above 3500 m) and decreased with elevated altitude (below 3500 m). (4) Significantly positive correlations between the growing season NDVI and surface air temperature were detected, which were mainly distributed in the snow-dominated sub-basins, indicating that glaciers and snow melting processes induced by global warming play an important role in vegetation growth. Although basin-wide non-significant negative correlations were found between precipitation and growing season NDVI, positive influences of precipitation on vegetation greening occurred in the arid and semi-arid upstream region. These findings could provide important information for ecological environment protection in the YZR basin and other high mountain regions.

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Section: Temporal and Spatial Variationssupporting

confidence: 70%

Greening Implication Inferred from Vegetation Dynamics Interacted with Climate Change and Human Activities over the Southeast Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Liu

et al. 2019

Remote Sensing

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“…The magnitude and frequency in the western middle-reach region and the lower-reach region generally show upward trends. This is in contrast to the results obtained by Sang et al [19]. One possible explanation for the differences in results is the fact that time series data used in our study covered a longer period (1958-2010 vs. 1973-2011).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 56%

“…Another possible explanation for the differences in the result from the two studies could be that the definitions of EPE used in the two studies are different. In Sang et al [19], an EPE is defined as daily precipitation greater than 25 mm. In our study, we defined the 90 quantile of daily precipitation in a year as the threshold of EPE.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trend Analyses of Extreme Precipitation Events in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin, China Using a High-Resolution Precipitation Product

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The Yarlung Zangbo River Basin (YZRB) is an important transboundary river basin in Tibet, China with south Asian countries. Changes in precipitation are important driving factors of river flow changes. Extreme Precipitation Events (EPE), in particular, have serious impacts on human life and sustainable development. The objective of this study is to explore the temporal changes and the spatial distribution of EPE over the YZRB in recent decades using a precipitation product with a 5 km spatial resolution and the Mann-Kendall nonparametric statistical test method. A more thorough understanding of the spatial heterogeneity in precipitation was expected from using this high resolution dataset. At both basin and pixel scale, both annual precipitation amounts and number of rain days had significant upward trends, indicating that the increase in the number of rain days is one possible cause of the annual precipitation amounts increases. The annual precipitation and number of rain days increased significantly in 50.8% and 75.8% of the basin area, respectively. The areas showing upward trends for the two indexes mostly overlapped, supporting the hypothesis that the increasing number of rain days is one possible cause of the increases in annual precipitation in these areas. General precipitation intensity and EPE intensity increased in the Lhasa regions and in the southern part of the lower-reach region. However, the intensity of general precipitation and EPE decreased in the Nyangqu River Basin. A total of 43.0% of the area in the YZRB exhibits significant upward trends in EPE frequency. The contributions of EPE to total rainfall increase significantly in the Lhasa and Shannan regions. Overall, it was shown that the risk of disasters from EPE in the YZRB increases in the eastern middle-reach region and southern lower-reach region.

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“…According to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the past three decades have been the warmest on record (IPCC, ). Precipitation, which is the most important element in the hydrological cycle, generally increases with increased temperatures, but can also show significant interdecadal variability and regional characteristics (Sang et al ., ; Wen et al ., ; Wu and Mao, ). Northwest China, located in the inner Eurasian continent and occupying 30% of the total sovereign Chinese territory, is a typical arid/semi‐arid area, and as such is sensitive to climate changes (Huang et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decadal change in summer precipitation over the east of Northwest China and its associations with atmospheric circulations and sea surface temperatures

Shang

Zhu

et al. 2019

Intl Journal of Climatology

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As global warming has progressed, precipitation patterns over arid Northwest China have undergone significant change. In this study, changes in summer (JJA) precipitation over the eastern part of Northwest China (ENWC) from 1980 to 2014 were investigated using the China gridded monthly precipitation dataset (CN05.1). The results showed that summer precipitation over the ENWC experienced a decadal wet‐to‐dry shift in 1998. Westerlies played an important role in the upper atmospheric levels in terms of water vapour transport; the decadal variations in summer precipitation were principally controlled by the water vapour input from the ENWC's western boundary. In addition, the decadal variations in summer precipitation in the ENWC appear to be associated with a meridional teleconnection around 110°E and a zonal pattern over 45–60°N in the lower troposphere. These two teleconnections led to cyclonic anomalies in the ENWC and enhanced water vapour transport into the ENWC, resulting in above‐normal precipitation during the 1989–1998 decadal period. Further, the warmer (colder) sea surface temperatures (SSTs) observed in the tropical Eastern Pacific correspond to the southward (northward) displacement of the Asian jet stream and a negative (positive) phase of the Silk Road pattern, resulting in a wet (dry) ENWC. Moreover, the SST anomalies in the North Atlantic and Northwest Pacific may affect summer precipitation over the ENWC via a zonal teleconnection in the middle troposphere.

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Precipitation variability and response to changing climatic condition in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin, China

Cited by 61 publications

References 35 publications

Greening Implication Inferred from Vegetation Dynamics Interacted with Climate Change and Human Activities over the Southeast Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Greening Implication Inferred from Vegetation Dynamics Interacted with Climate Change and Human Activities over the Southeast Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Trend Analyses of Extreme Precipitation Events in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin, China Using a High-Resolution Precipitation Product

Decadal change in summer precipitation over the east of Northwest China and its associations with atmospheric circulations and sea surface temperatures

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