Hydrological effects of alpine permafrost in the headwaters of the Urumqi River,Tianshan Mountains

Against the background of climate change, alpine permafrost active layers have shown a gradual thickening trend and the hydrothermal conditions have undergone significant changes in the Tianshan Mountains and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. At the ice-free cirque basins in the headwaters of the Urumqi River （hereafter referred to as the Ice-Free Cirque） in eastern Tianshan, China, the hydrological effects of the alpine permafrost active layers appear to have also exhibited sig- nificant changes recently. The increasing trend of local precipitation is clear in May and June. The onset of winter and spring snowmelt runoff clearly lags behind increases of air temperature, and the runoff peak appears near the beginning of the melting season, which results in the spring rtmoff increasing. In summer, runoff decreases strongly and the maximum runoff occurs earlier. In our analysis of meteorological and hydrologic data from 1959 to 2010, the runoffand precipitation changes are significantly correlated. In the initial stage of runoff, the runoff-producing process is mainly under the control of the soil water content and soil temperature in the 0-30 cm active layers. Spring precipitation and snowmelt water are mainly involved in the processes of infiltration and evaporation while some melt water infiltrates into the seasonal thawed layer and stays above the frozen layers. During the strong ablation period in summer, the runoff-generating process is mainly controlled by soil water content in the active layers deeper than 60 cm. In the active layer, precipitation and sea- sonal snowmelt water infiltrates, migrates, collects, and then forms runoff.

The surface velocity feature of Glacier No.1 at the headwater of Urumqi River,Tianshan Mountain

The movement of a glacier can redistribute glacier mass balance and change water and thermal conditions of the glacier.Thus,the glacier can maintain its dynamic balance.Surface velocity of a glacier is a basic feature of glacier movement.With successive monthly observations from 2006 to 2008,we obtained spatial and temporal variations for surface velocity of Glacier No.1 at the headwater of Urumqi River,Tianshan Mountain.Dynamic simulation was used to verify the findings.Results show that altitudinal distribution of glacier velocity was influenced by synthetic effects such as glacier thickness,slope,and bedrock morphology.However,seasonal variation was influenced by changing glacier thickness.

The hydrothermal changes of permafrost active layer and their impact on summer rainfall-runoff processes in an alpine meadow watershed,northwest China

The freezing-thawing variation of permafrost active layer increases the complexity of rainfall-runoff processes in alpine river basins,Northwest China.And alpine meadow is the prominent ecosystem in these basins.This study selected a small alpine meadow watershed in the upper reaches of the Shule River Basin,China.We investigated alpine rainfall-runoff processes,as well as impacts of summer thaw depth of active layer,soil temperature and moisture variation on streamflow based on in-situ observations from July 2015 to December 2020.Some hydrologic parameters or indices were calculated using statistical methods,and impacts of permafrost change on river runoff were assessed using the variable infiltration capacity model(VIC).In the alpine meadow,surface soil(0–10 cm depth)of the active layer starts to freeze in mid-October each year,and begins to thaw in early April.Also,the deeper soil(70–80 cm depth)of the active layer starts to freeze in late October,and begins to thaw in late June.Moisture content in shallow soils fluctuates regularly,whereas deeper soils are more stable,and their response to rainstorms is negligible.During active layer thawing,the moisture content increases with soil depth.In the alpine meadow,vertical infiltration only occurred in soils up to 40 cm deep,and lateral flow occurred in0–20 and 60–80 cm deep soils at current rainfall intensity.Summer runoff ratios were 0.06–0.31,and runoff floods show lags of 9.5–23.0 h following the rainfall event in the study area.The freeze–thaw process also significantly impacts runoff regression coefficients,which were 0.0088–0.0654 per hour.Recession coefficient decrease negatively correlates with active layer thawing depth in summer and autumn.Alpine river basin permafrost can effectively increase peak discharge and reduce low flow.These findings are highly significant for rainfall–runoff conversion research in alpine areas of inland rivers.

Quantitatively estimate the components of natural runoff and identify the impacting factors in a snow-fed river basin of China

Snowmelt water is an essential runoff source of some alpine rivers in China. This study selected the Upper Burqin River(UBR), a typical snow-fed river, to quantitatively assess the runoff contributions of different components, as well as the causes of runoff variations under the background of cryosphere change and global warming. Based on the spatial-temporal distributions of snow and glaciers during a year, as well as the altitudinal variations of 0 ℃ isotherm, the high flow hydrographs in UBR was separated into two parts: seasonal snowmelt flood of lower altitudes(<3,000 m) and glacier-snow melt flow in high altitudes(3,000-4,296 m). The daily baseflow hydrograph of UBR was separated by the digital filtering technique. It is concluded that the contributions of snowmelt flow, glacier melt flow, and baseflow(includes rainfall runoff component) to total annual flow volumes are 27.2%(±2.7%), 8.5%(±1.7%), and 64.3%(±3.0%), respectively. The speed of air temperature rise in spring may be the controlling factor for monthly snowmelt flow distributions in the snow-fed river. The volume of snowmelt was determined by spring precipitation(SP) and previous winter’s precipitation(PWP). The PWP changes can explain 43.7% of snowmelt changes during 1981-2010 in UBR, while snowmelt change in 1957-1980 is more impacted by SP. The determining factor of snowmelt variation was changed from SP to PAP during the recent decades. Precipitation in current year, excluding previous year’s rainfall and snowfall, can only explain 32%-70% of the variability in total runoff.