Mountains and plateaus in Southwest China contain many subalpine and alpine wetlands, with signifieant hydroecological functions. But ungauged or poorly gauged eonditions limit the study and understanding of hydrologi...Mountains and plateaus in Southwest China contain many subalpine and alpine wetlands, with signifieant hydroecological functions. But ungauged or poorly gauged eonditions limit the study and understanding of hydrological regimes of these wetland types. This study selects an ungauged subalpine wetland - Napahai in Northwest Yunnan, China - as a case for developing a practical approach to revealing its storage-area relationship of open water. A Trimble R8 GNSS (Global Navigation Satellites Systems) RTK (Real-time Kinematic system) and sonar fathometer were used to survey fine- resolution elevation data and generate a digital elevation model of the Napahai Wetland. Forty-four Landsat images from 1987 to 2Oll were collected, and the Normalized Difference Water Index was used to classify open water features in the area. The area of open water in Napahai was ealculated for each phase. With these data and a developed conceptual model, the storage of open water for each phase was estimated using ArcGIS tools. Both storage and area of open water showed significant intra-annual and inter-annual variations. In the rainy season, the monthly change of average storage of open water in Napahai showed about 1-2 months lag behind mean monthly rainfall. The storage-area relationship of open water was well fit by a power function equation (R2=0.91, n=44). This study indicates that if detailedelevations are available for similarly ungauged subalpine wetlands in Southwest China, researchers can use this practical approach to estimate multi- temporal areas and storages and reveal the storage- area relationship of open water in the wetlands. The study provided valuable information of this ease wetland for optimizing its hydro-ecological managements and a new method to wetland researchers and managers for the hydrological study of similarly ungauged wetland complex.展开更多
The Yalu Tsangpo River basin is a typical semi-arid and cold region in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where significant climate change has been detected in the past decades. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate h...The Yalu Tsangpo River basin is a typical semi-arid and cold region in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where significant climate change has been detected in the past decades. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the regional vegetation, especially the typical plant types, responds to the climate changes. In this study, the model of gravity center has been firstly introduced to analyze the spatial-temporal relationship between NDVI and climate factors considering the time-lag effect. The results show that the vegetation grown has been positively influenced by the rainfall and precipitation both in moving tracks of gravity center and time-lag effect especially for the growing season during the past thirteen years. The herbs and shrubs are inclined to be influenced by the change of rainfall and temperature, which is indicated by larger positive correlation coefficients at the 0.05 confidence level and shorter lagging time. For the soil moisture, the significantly negative relationship of NDV-PDI indicates that the growth and productivity of the vegetation are closely related to the short-term soil water, with the correlation coefficients reaching the maximum value of o.81 at Lag 0-1. Among the typicalvegetation types of plateau, the shrubs of low mountain, steppe and meadow are more sensitive to the change of soil moisture with coefficients of -0.95, -0.93, -0.92, respectively. These findings reveal that the spatial and temporal heterogeneity between NDVI and climatic factors are of great ecological significance and practical value for the protection of eco-environment in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.展开更多
Three-River Headwaters (TRH) region involved in this paper refers to the source region of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, the Huanghe (Yellow) River and the Lancang River in China. Taking the TRH region of the Q...Three-River Headwaters (TRH) region involved in this paper refers to the source region of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, the Huanghe (Yellow) River and the Lancang River in China. Taking the TRH region of the Qing- hai-Tibet Plateau as a case, the annual evapotranspiration (ET) model developed by Zhang et al. (2001) was applied to evaluate mean annual ET in the alpine area, and the response of annual ET to land use change was analyzed. The plant-available water coefficient (w) of Zhang's model was revised by using vegetation-temperature condition index (VTCI) before annual ET was calculated in alpine area. The future land use scenario, an input of ET model, was spa- tially simulated by using the conversion of land use and its effects at small regional extent (CLUE-S) to study the re- sponse of ET to land use change. Results show that the relative errors between the simulated ET and that calculated by using water balance equation were 3.81% and the index of agreement was 0.69. This indicates that Zhang's ET model based on revised plant-available water coefficient is a scientific and practical tool to estimate the annual ET in the al- pine area. The annual ET in 2000 in the study area was 221.2 ram, 11.6 mm more than that in 1980. Average annual ET decreased from southeast to northwest, but the change of annual ET between 1980 and 2000 increased from southeast to northwest. As a vast and sparsely populated area, the population in the TRH region was extremely unbalanced and land use change was concentrated in very small regions. Thus, land use change had little effect on total annual ET in the study area but a great impact on its spatial distribution, and the effect of land use change on ET decreased with in- creasing precipitation. ET was most sensitive to the interconversion between forest and unused land, and was least sen- sitive to the interconversion between cropland and low-covered grassland.展开更多
Daily precipitation for 1960-2011 and maximum/minimum temperature extremes for 1960-2008 recorded at 549 stations in China are utilized to investigate climate extreme variations.A set of indices is derived and analyze...Daily precipitation for 1960-2011 and maximum/minimum temperature extremes for 1960-2008 recorded at 549 stations in China are utilized to investigate climate extreme variations.A set of indices is derived and analyzed with a main focus on the trends and variabilities of daily extreme occurrences.Results show significant increases in daily extreme warm temperatures and decreases in daily extreme cold temperatures,defined as the number of days in which daily maximum temperature (Tmax) and daily minimum temperature (Tmin) are greater than the 90th percentile and less than thel0th percentile,respectively.Generally,the trend magnitudes are larger in indices derived from Tmin than those from Tmax.Trends of percentile-based precipitation indices show distinct spatial patterns with increases in heavy precipitation events,defined as the top 95th percentile of daily precipitation,in westem and northeastern China and in the low reaches of the Yangtze River basin region,and slight decreases in other areas.Light precipitation,defined as the tail of the 5th percentile of daily precipitation,however,decreases in most areas.The annual maximum consecutive dry days (CDD) show an increasing trend in southem China and the middle-low reach of the Yellow River basin,while the annual maximum consecutive wet days (CWD) displays a downtrend over most regions except western China.These indices vary significantly with regions and seasons.Overall,occurrences of extreme events in China are more frequent,particularly the night time extreme temperature,and landmasses in China become warmer and wetter.展开更多
This paper demonstrates regional characteristics, a long-term decreasing trend, and decadal variations in the frequency of cold surge events based on daily mean temperature and daily minimum temperature data in China&...This paper demonstrates regional characteristics, a long-term decreasing trend, and decadal variations in the frequency of cold surge events based on daily mean temperature and daily minimum temperature data in China's Mainland from 1960 to 2008. During these 48 years four high frequency centers of cold surge events were located in Xinjiang, central North China, northeast China, and southeast China. A main frequency peak of cold surge events occurs in autumn for the four regions and another peak is detected in spring over northeast China and southeast China. The regional pattern of cold surge frequencies is in accordance with the perturbation kinetic energy distribution in October December, January, and February April. The long-term decreasing trend ( 0.2 times/decade) of cold surge frequencies in northeast China and decadal variations in China are related to the variations of the temperature difference between southern and northern China in the winter monsoon season; these variations are due to the significant rising of winter temperatures in high latitudes.展开更多
The study of snow and ice melt (SIM) is important in water-scarce arid regions for the assessment of water supply and quality. These studies involve unique difficulties, especially in the calibration of hydro-models...The study of snow and ice melt (SIM) is important in water-scarce arid regions for the assessment of water supply and quality. These studies involve unique difficulties, especially in the calibration of hydro-models because there is no direct way to continuously measure the SIM at hydrostations. The recursive digital filter (RDF) and the isotopic hydro-geochemical method (IHM) were coupled to separate the SIM from eight observed series of alpine streamflows in northwestern China. Validation of the calibrated methods suggested a good capture of the SIM characteristics with fair accuracy in both space and time. Applications of the coupled methods in the upper reaches of the Hei River Basin (HRB) suggested a double peak curve of the SIM fraction to streamflow for the multi-component recharged (MCR) rivers, while a single peak curve was suggested for the rainfall-dominant recharged (RDR) rivers. Given inter-annual statistics of the separation, both types of the alpine rivers have experienced an obvious decrease of SIM since 196os. In the past 10 years, the SIM in the two types of rivers has risen to the levels of the 1970s, but has remained lower than the level of the 1960s. The study provided a considerable evidence to quantify the alpine SIMbased on the separation of observed data series at gauge stations. Application of the coupled method could be helpful in the calibration and validation of SIM-related hydro-models in alpine regions.展开更多
基金supported by the National Special Basic Research Fund(Grant No.2008FY110300)National Science and Technology Support Program(Grant No.2011BAC09B07)+1 种基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.40961003)Scientific Research Fund Project of Yunnan Education Department(Grant No.2011J018)
文摘Mountains and plateaus in Southwest China contain many subalpine and alpine wetlands, with signifieant hydroecological functions. But ungauged or poorly gauged eonditions limit the study and understanding of hydrological regimes of these wetland types. This study selects an ungauged subalpine wetland - Napahai in Northwest Yunnan, China - as a case for developing a practical approach to revealing its storage-area relationship of open water. A Trimble R8 GNSS (Global Navigation Satellites Systems) RTK (Real-time Kinematic system) and sonar fathometer were used to survey fine- resolution elevation data and generate a digital elevation model of the Napahai Wetland. Forty-four Landsat images from 1987 to 2Oll were collected, and the Normalized Difference Water Index was used to classify open water features in the area. The area of open water in Napahai was ealculated for each phase. With these data and a developed conceptual model, the storage of open water for each phase was estimated using ArcGIS tools. Both storage and area of open water showed significant intra-annual and inter-annual variations. In the rainy season, the monthly change of average storage of open water in Napahai showed about 1-2 months lag behind mean monthly rainfall. The storage-area relationship of open water was well fit by a power function equation (R2=0.91, n=44). This study indicates that if detailedelevations are available for similarly ungauged subalpine wetlands in Southwest China, researchers can use this practical approach to estimate multi- temporal areas and storages and reveal the storage- area relationship of open water in the wetlands. The study provided valuable information of this ease wetland for optimizing its hydro-ecological managements and a new method to wetland researchers and managers for the hydrological study of similarly ungauged wetland complex.
基金funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41201441, No. 41371363, and No. 41301501)Guangxi Key Laboratory of Spatial Information and Geomatics (Grant No. 1207115-18)the knowledge innovation project of the Chinese academy of sciences (Grant Nos. KZCX2YW-333, KZCXZ-EW-317)
文摘The Yalu Tsangpo River basin is a typical semi-arid and cold region in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where significant climate change has been detected in the past decades. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the regional vegetation, especially the typical plant types, responds to the climate changes. In this study, the model of gravity center has been firstly introduced to analyze the spatial-temporal relationship between NDVI and climate factors considering the time-lag effect. The results show that the vegetation grown has been positively influenced by the rainfall and precipitation both in moving tracks of gravity center and time-lag effect especially for the growing season during the past thirteen years. The herbs and shrubs are inclined to be influenced by the change of rainfall and temperature, which is indicated by larger positive correlation coefficients at the 0.05 confidence level and shorter lagging time. For the soil moisture, the significantly negative relationship of NDV-PDI indicates that the growth and productivity of the vegetation are closely related to the short-term soil water, with the correlation coefficients reaching the maximum value of o.81 at Lag 0-1. Among the typicalvegetation types of plateau, the shrubs of low mountain, steppe and meadow are more sensitive to the change of soil moisture with coefficients of -0.95, -0.93, -0.92, respectively. These findings reveal that the spatial and temporal heterogeneity between NDVI and climatic factors are of great ecological significance and practical value for the protection of eco-environment in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
基金Under the auspices of Supporting Program of the 'Eleventh Five-year Plan' for Science and Technology Research of China (No. 2009BAC61B02)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (No. 20100470561)
文摘Three-River Headwaters (TRH) region involved in this paper refers to the source region of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, the Huanghe (Yellow) River and the Lancang River in China. Taking the TRH region of the Qing- hai-Tibet Plateau as a case, the annual evapotranspiration (ET) model developed by Zhang et al. (2001) was applied to evaluate mean annual ET in the alpine area, and the response of annual ET to land use change was analyzed. The plant-available water coefficient (w) of Zhang's model was revised by using vegetation-temperature condition index (VTCI) before annual ET was calculated in alpine area. The future land use scenario, an input of ET model, was spa- tially simulated by using the conversion of land use and its effects at small regional extent (CLUE-S) to study the re- sponse of ET to land use change. Results show that the relative errors between the simulated ET and that calculated by using water balance equation were 3.81% and the index of agreement was 0.69. This indicates that Zhang's ET model based on revised plant-available water coefficient is a scientific and practical tool to estimate the annual ET in the al- pine area. The annual ET in 2000 in the study area was 221.2 ram, 11.6 mm more than that in 1980. Average annual ET decreased from southeast to northwest, but the change of annual ET between 1980 and 2000 increased from southeast to northwest. As a vast and sparsely populated area, the population in the TRH region was extremely unbalanced and land use change was concentrated in very small regions. Thus, land use change had little effect on total annual ET in the study area but a great impact on its spatial distribution, and the effect of land use change on ET decreased with in- creasing precipitation. ET was most sensitive to the interconversion between forest and unused land, and was least sen- sitive to the interconversion between cropland and low-covered grassland.
基金supported by the Department of Science and Technology of China(2009CB421403 and2010CB428403)by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41275110)
文摘Daily precipitation for 1960-2011 and maximum/minimum temperature extremes for 1960-2008 recorded at 549 stations in China are utilized to investigate climate extreme variations.A set of indices is derived and analyzed with a main focus on the trends and variabilities of daily extreme occurrences.Results show significant increases in daily extreme warm temperatures and decreases in daily extreme cold temperatures,defined as the number of days in which daily maximum temperature (Tmax) and daily minimum temperature (Tmin) are greater than the 90th percentile and less than thel0th percentile,respectively.Generally,the trend magnitudes are larger in indices derived from Tmin than those from Tmax.Trends of percentile-based precipitation indices show distinct spatial patterns with increases in heavy precipitation events,defined as the top 95th percentile of daily precipitation,in westem and northeastern China and in the low reaches of the Yangtze River basin region,and slight decreases in other areas.Light precipitation,defined as the tail of the 5th percentile of daily precipitation,however,decreases in most areas.The annual maximum consecutive dry days (CDD) show an increasing trend in southem China and the middle-low reach of the Yellow River basin,while the annual maximum consecutive wet days (CWD) displays a downtrend over most regions except western China.These indices vary significantly with regions and seasons.Overall,occurrences of extreme events in China are more frequent,particularly the night time extreme temperature,and landmasses in China become warmer and wetter.
基金supported jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40975039)the National Basic Research Program of China (2006CB400504/ 2009CB421401 and GYHY20070605)
文摘This paper demonstrates regional characteristics, a long-term decreasing trend, and decadal variations in the frequency of cold surge events based on daily mean temperature and daily minimum temperature data in China's Mainland from 1960 to 2008. During these 48 years four high frequency centers of cold surge events were located in Xinjiang, central North China, northeast China, and southeast China. A main frequency peak of cold surge events occurs in autumn for the four regions and another peak is detected in spring over northeast China and southeast China. The regional pattern of cold surge frequencies is in accordance with the perturbation kinetic energy distribution in October December, January, and February April. The long-term decreasing trend ( 0.2 times/decade) of cold surge frequencies in northeast China and decadal variations in China are related to the variations of the temperature difference between southern and northern China in the winter monsoon season; these variations are due to the significant rising of winter temperatures in high latitudes.
基金supported by the following grants:National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB421306)the NSFC Project (Grant Nos. 41001014, 51209119) NSFC Projects (Grant Nos. 41240002, 91225301)+1 种基金the NSFC Key Project (Grant No. 91125010)the MAIRS Project funded by the NASA LCLUC Program (Grant No. NNX08AH50G)
文摘The study of snow and ice melt (SIM) is important in water-scarce arid regions for the assessment of water supply and quality. These studies involve unique difficulties, especially in the calibration of hydro-models because there is no direct way to continuously measure the SIM at hydrostations. The recursive digital filter (RDF) and the isotopic hydro-geochemical method (IHM) were coupled to separate the SIM from eight observed series of alpine streamflows in northwestern China. Validation of the calibrated methods suggested a good capture of the SIM characteristics with fair accuracy in both space and time. Applications of the coupled methods in the upper reaches of the Hei River Basin (HRB) suggested a double peak curve of the SIM fraction to streamflow for the multi-component recharged (MCR) rivers, while a single peak curve was suggested for the rainfall-dominant recharged (RDR) rivers. Given inter-annual statistics of the separation, both types of the alpine rivers have experienced an obvious decrease of SIM since 196os. In the past 10 years, the SIM in the two types of rivers has risen to the levels of the 1970s, but has remained lower than the level of the 1960s. The study provided a considerable evidence to quantify the alpine SIMbased on the separation of observed data series at gauge stations. Application of the coupled method could be helpful in the calibration and validation of SIM-related hydro-models in alpine regions.