Robust climate warming has led to significant expansion of lakes in the central Tibetan Plateau. Using remote sensing data, our quantitative analysis indicates that Siling Co, a saline lake in a characteristic endorhe...Robust climate warming has led to significant expansion of lakes in the central Tibetan Plateau. Using remote sensing data, our quantitative analysis indicates that Siling Co, a saline lake in a characteristic endorheic basin in the central region of the Plateau, has expanded more than 600 km2 in area since 1976. Particularly since 1995, the lake has signif- icantly expanded in response to increasing precipitation, decreasing water surface evaporation caused by weaker winds and less solar radiation, and increased glacier meltwater draining to the lake. Glacie^lake interactions are important in governing lake expansion and are also part of a feedback loop that influences the local climate. Worsening climatic conditions （decreased precipitation and increased temperatures） that could have caused the lake to shrink during 1976-1994 were offset by increasing glacier meltwater feeding the lake, which made the lake nearly stable. We demonstrate that this pattern changed during 1995-2009, when glacier meltwater actually decreased but participation runoff increased and evaporation decreased, leading to expansion of the lake. If climatic conditions became suitable for further lake development, which would be indicated by expansion in lake area, glacier meltwater could be saved in a stable reservoir.展开更多
基金funded by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program) under Grant No. 2010CB951701by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41071042)supported by the Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-BR-22)
文摘Robust climate warming has led to significant expansion of lakes in the central Tibetan Plateau. Using remote sensing data, our quantitative analysis indicates that Siling Co, a saline lake in a characteristic endorheic basin in the central region of the Plateau, has expanded more than 600 km2 in area since 1976. Particularly since 1995, the lake has signif- icantly expanded in response to increasing precipitation, decreasing water surface evaporation caused by weaker winds and less solar radiation, and increased glacier meltwater draining to the lake. Glacie^lake interactions are important in governing lake expansion and are also part of a feedback loop that influences the local climate. Worsening climatic conditions （decreased precipitation and increased temperatures） that could have caused the lake to shrink during 1976-1994 were offset by increasing glacier meltwater feeding the lake, which made the lake nearly stable. We demonstrate that this pattern changed during 1995-2009, when glacier meltwater actually decreased but participation runoff increased and evaporation decreased, leading to expansion of the lake. If climatic conditions became suitable for further lake development, which would be indicated by expansion in lake area, glacier meltwater could be saved in a stable reservoir.
