Frozen ground is an important component of the cryosphere, which exerts strong influences on regional ecology, hydrology and infrastructure engineering (W. Wang et al., 2018; Westermann et al., 2015). The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is underlain by typical high-altitude permafrost region, which is undergoing more dramatic climatic warming than its surrounding regions (Wang et al., 2019). A growing number of studies have reported the present status and predicted degradation of permafrost under various global warming scenarios (

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