Climate change and water security in the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains

Water security is under threat worldwide from climate change. A warming climate would accelerate evaporationand cryosphere melting, leading to reduced water availability and unpredictable water supply. However, thewater crisis in the Northern Slope of Tianshan Mountains(NSTM) faces dual challenges because water demandsforfast-growing urban areas have put heavy pressure on water resources. The mountain-oasis-desert system featuresglacier-fed rivers that sustain intensive water use in the oasis and end in the desert as fragile terminal lakes.The complex balance between water conservation and economic development is subtle. This paper investigateschanges in hydroclimatic variables and water security-related issues on the NSTM. The spatiotemporal variationsin glaciers, climatic variables, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, groundwater, surface water, human water use, andstreamflow were analyzed for the past four decades. The results show that temperature in the NSTM exhibitedan apparent upward trend with a more significant warming rate in the higher altitude regions. Glacier massloss and shrinkage was strong. The average annual streamflow increased from 1980-1989 to 2006–2011 at mosthydrological stations. The monthly dynamics of surface water area showed notable variability at both inter-annual and seasonal scales, revealing the impacts of both natural and anthropogenic drivers on surface wateravailability in the region. The terrestrial water storage anomaly showed a decreasing trend, which might berelated to groundwater pumping for irrigation. Human water use for agriculture and industry grew with theincrease in cultivated land area and gross domestic product (GDP). The increased agricultural water use wasstrongly associated with the expansion of oases. It is unclear whether water availability would remain high underfuture climatic and hydrological uncertainties, posing challenges to water management. In the context of rapidurban growth and climate change, balancing water for humans and nature is vital in achieving the SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs) in NSTM. This study provides a baseline understanding of the interplay among water,climate change, and socio-economic development in NSTM. It would also shed light on wise water managementunder environmental changes for other rapidly developing mountain-oasis-desert systems worldwide.

Geomorphological Evolution and Palaeoenvironmental Change in the Western Alashan Plateau, China

Although neotectonic activity is considered to be the main factor of the terrain evolution of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and its surrounding high-altitude areas,further geomorphological analysis and literature analysis are needed for the understanding of the geomorphic evolution and the Quaternary environment change of the western area of the Alxa Plateau near the northern Tibet Plateau.The purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution of site-specific geomorphic units of the landforms developed in the vast topography of Ejina Basin(Western Alxa),in order to identify the geostructural and climatic causes of the geomorphic landscape and its impact on the change of paleoenvironment.At present,the climate and hydrological conditions in Ejina are relatively monotonous and stable.In addition to tectonic dynamic factors,the most widely distributed landform in the basin is climate landform.There are both geomorphological and sedimentological anomalies of Aeolian landforms occurred in the whole basin,indicating that the underlying surface effect(retention effect)of river(Ejina River)and its related uneven ground and weak wind erosion(deflation)process in the nearby area may be the important factors controlling the formation of Ejina dunes,rather than the arid climate.It is believed that the extensive interaction between the aeolian and fluvial processes is the main mechanism of the regional geomorphic difference in Ejina Basin.According to the comparability of regional geomorphology and sedimentology,the period of the formation of relic geomorphology in the edge of Ejina Basin can be reasonably attributed to the local glacial maximum of the last glacial.The geomorphic transformation from quasi plain and desert valley to desert plain,the appearance of widely moving sand dunes and the presence of large ancient lake geomorphology all indicate that the drought index of Ejina Basin is increasing on the scale of geomorphic formation.Paleogeomorphological and chronological evidences show that the climatic and hydrological conditions of the basin in the last glacial period and the early Holocene are much better than those at present.For example,the average annual precipitation in the area before 39-23ka BP is between 60-350 mm(about 36 mm today),but there are large waves in the Holocene.The coexistence of various climates and landforms in Ejina Basin and the resulting geomorphic diversity should be the composite result of various geomorphic processes and surface processes besides glaciation.The low aridity(relative humidity)in the Ejina Region in the late Pleistocene may be the result of the enhancement of the westerly rain belt and the weakening of the Asian Winter Monsoon in the arid region of Central Asia.