scholarly journals Glacier Changes in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China, between the 1960s and 2015

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing He ◽  
Ninglian Wang ◽  
An’an Chen ◽  
Xuewen Yang ◽  
Ting Hua
Keyword(s):  
Northwest China ◽  
Hexi Corridor ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
The West ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Current State ◽  
Glacier Changes ◽  
The Qilian Mountains ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Arid Northwest China

Glaciers in the Qilian Mountains are important sources of fresh-water for sustainable development in the Hexi Corridor in the arid northwest China. Over the last few decades, glaciers have generally shrunk across the globe due to climate warming. In order to understand the current state of glaciers in the Qilian Mountains, we compiled a new inventory of glaciers in the region using Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) images acquired in 2015, and identified 2748 glaciers that covered an area of 1539.30 ± 49.50 km2 with an ice volume of 81.69 ± 7.40 km3, among which the Shule River basin occupied the largest portion of glaciers (24.8% in number, 32.3% in area, and 35.6% in ice volume). In comparison to previous inventories, glacier area was found to shrink by 396.89 km2 (20.5%) in total, and 446 glaciers with an area of 44.79 km2 disappeared over the period from the 1960s to 2015. This situation was primarily caused by the increase in air temperature, and also related with the size of glacier and some local topographic parameters. In addition, the change of glaciers in the Qilian Mountains showed a distinct spatial pattern, i.e., their shrinking rate was large in the east and small in the west.

scholarly journals Abundant Precipitation in Qilian Mountains Generated from the Recycled Moisture over the Adjacent Arid Hexi Corridor, Northwest China

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 3354
Author(s):  
Zhihua Zhang ◽  
Qiudong Zhao ◽  
Shiqiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Hexi Corridor ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Reanalysis Dataset ◽  
Weather Forecasts ◽  
Endorheic Basin

The observed precipitation was suggestive of abundant precipitation in upstream Qilian mountains and low precipitation in the downstream oasis and desert in an endorheic basin. However, precipitation in mountains generated from the recycled moisture over oasis and desert areas has rarely been studied. The climatological patterns of water vapor from 1980 to 2017 in the Qilian Mountain Region (QMR) and Hexi Corridor Region (HCR) were investigated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim reanalysis dataset and the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application, Version 2 reanalysis dataset. The results suggest that the precipitable water content decreases from the adjacent to the mountain areas. There are two channels that transport water vapor from the HCR to the QMR in the low troposphere (surface—600 hPa), suggesting that parts of recycled moisture generated from evapotranspiration over the oasis and desert of the HCR is transported to the QMR, contributing to the abundant precipitation in the QMR. This indicates that the transport mechanism is probably because of the “cold and wet island effect” of the cryosphere in QMR. This is likely one of the essential mechanisms of the water cycle in endorheic river basins, which has rarely been reported.

scholarly journals Actual evapotranspiration of subalpine meadows in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-384
Author(s):  
Yunfei Gao ◽  
Chuanyan Zhao ◽  
Muhammad W. Ashiq ◽  
Qingtao Wang ◽  
Zhanlei Rong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northwest China ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Actual Evapotranspiration ◽  
Subalpine Meadows ◽  
The Qilian Mountains

scholarly journals Regional and Local Moisture Gradients Drive the Resistance to and Recovery from Drought of Picea crassifolia Kom. in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingnan Zhang ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Yilin Ran ◽  
Keyi Wang ◽  
Xiaomin Zeng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radial Growth ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Western Region ◽  
Drought Event ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Picea Crassifolia ◽  
The Western Region ◽  
The Qilian Mountains

Increasing evidence suggests that extreme droughts cause more frequent tree growth reduction. To understand the consequences of these droughts better, this study used tree-ring cores from nine sites to investigate how moisture and altitudinal gradients affect the radial growth of Picea crassifolia Kom., a common species in the Qilian Mountains in northwest China. The total annual precipitation and mean annual temperature in the eastern region were higher than those in the western region of the Qilian Mountains. The trees in the eastern region showed stronger resistance to drought than those in the west, as they had a smaller difference in radial growth between drought disturbance and pre-drought disturbance. At the same time, the trees in the east showed weaker ability to recover from drought, as they had a subtle difference in radial growth between post-drought disturbance and drought disturbance. Furthermore, the trees in the east also showed weaker relative resilience to drought, as they had a small difference in radial growth between post-drought and drought disturbance weighted by growth in pre-drought disturbance. For trees below 3000 m a.s.l., trees with high resistance capacity usually had low recovery capacity and low relative resilience capacity. Trees at higher altitudes also showed stronger resistance to drought and weaker ability to recover from drought after a drought event than those at lower altitudes in the middle of the Qilian Mountains. Trees at lower altitudes in the middle of the Qilian Mountains had more difficulties recovering from more severe and longer drought events. In the context of global warming, trees in the western region and at lower altitudes should be given special attention and protection in forest management to enhance their resistance to extreme droughts.

Impacts of Topography on the Land Cover Classification in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Wang ◽  
Chenli Liu ◽  
Fei Zang ◽  
Jianhong Yang ◽  
Na Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Classification ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
The Qilian Mountains

Assessing the influences of tree species, elevation and climate on tree-ring growth in the Qilian Mountains of northwest China

Trees ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linlin Gao ◽  
Xiaohua Gou ◽  
Yang Deng ◽  
Meixue Yang ◽  
Fen Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
The Qilian Mountains

Changes in the glacier extent and surface elevation along the Ningchan and Shuiguan river source, eastern Qilian Mountains, China

2014 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Cao ◽  
Baotian Pan ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Donghui Shangguan ◽  
Zhenling Wen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Water Discharge ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Topographic Maps ◽  
Similar Time ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Glacier Changes ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Thinning Rate

AbstractWe investigate the changes at nine glaciers in the Ningchan and Shuiguan river source, eastern Qilian Mountains, between 1972 and 2010. According to analysis of topographic maps and multispectral satellite data, all nine glaciers in the study area have retreated, by a maximum of 250 ± 57.4 m and a minimum of 91 ± 57.4 m. The total glacier area decreased by 1.20 km2, corresponding to 9.9% of the glacierized area in 1972. Comparing the two DEMs generated from the topographic maps and Real-Time Kinematic GPS data, the mean glacier thinning rate was 0.64 m yr− 1 between 1972 and 2010. The most significant thinning generally occurred on the termini. The ice-volume loss was about 106.8 ± 46.7 × 10− 3 km3 (equal to 90.8 ± 39.7 × 10− 3 km3 w.e.), which suggested a mean water discharge of 0.1 ± 0.05 m3/s during 1972–2010. Based on analysis of meteorological data, the summer temperature (June–August) tends to increase over a similar time period. The consistency of temperature increase and glacier shrinkage allows us to suggest that air temperature plays an important role in glacier changes in this region.

scholarly journals Attribution of growing season evapotranspiration variability considering snowmelt and vegetation changes in the arid alpine basins

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 3455-3469
Author(s):  
Tingting Ning ◽  
Zhi Li ◽  
Qi Feng ◽  
Zongxing Li ◽  
Yanyan Qin
Keyword(s):  
Potential Evapotranspiration ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Vegetation Changes ◽  
Total Water ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Temporal Variance ◽  
The Qilian Mountains

Abstract. Previous studies have successfully applied variance decomposition frameworks based on the Budyko equations to determine the relative contribution of variability in precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (E0), and total water storage changes (ΔS) to evapotranspiration variance (σET2) on different timescales; however, the effects of snowmelt (Qm) and vegetation (M) changes have not been incorporated into this framework in snow-dependent basins. Taking the arid alpine basins in the Qilian Mountains in northwest China as the study area, we extended the Budyko framework to decompose the growing season σET2 into the temporal variance and covariance of rainfall (R), E0, ΔS,Qm, and M. The results indicate that the incorporation of Qm could improve the performance of the Budyko framework on a monthly scale; σET2 was primarily controlled by the R variance with a mean contribution of 63 %, followed by the coupled R and M (24.3 %) and then the coupled R and E0 (14.1 %). The effects of M variance or Qm variance cannot be ignored because they contribute 4.3 % and 1.8 % of σET2, respectively. By contrast, the interaction of some coupled factors adversely affected σET2, and the out-of-phase seasonality between R and Qm had the largest effect (−7.6 %). Our methodology and these findings are helpful for quantitatively assessing and understanding hydrological responses to climate and vegetation changes in snow-dependent regions on a finer timescale.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document