Atmospheric Water Transport to the Endorheic Tibetan Plateau and Its Effect on the Hydrological Status in the Region

Abstract

The endorheic Tibetan Plateau (ETP), which consists of all the endorheic basins of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), has exhibited an overall mass gain in recent decades. However, the role played by atmospheric water (AW) transport on the hydrological status over the ETP is poorly understood. In this study, the AW source to the ETP was tracked with the Water Accounting Model‐2 layers (WAM‐2) and AW transport to the ETP through its boundaries was quantified, with three reanalysis products (ERA‐I, MERRA‐2, and JRA‐55) during 1979/1980–2015. It is found that total AW input to the ETP is about 13–25%, 59–71%, 10–13%, and 3–7% of mean annual totals in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively. At annual scales, the AW source from land (52–54%) dominates the AW contribution to the ETP, while local recycling of AW over the ETP accounts for about 17–22% of the mean annual total AW contribution. Increased precipitation over the ETP during 1979–2015 was mostly attributed to the significantly increased AW contribution from the Indian Ocean, especially from increased AW inputs transported from the western and southern boundaries in summer. Comparisons between the AW budget and terrestrial water storage changes indicate that the AW budget change over the ETP modulated the variations of terrestrial water storage change during 2002–2014 and annual lake mass change during 1989–2015.

Survival of the Qaidam mega-lake system under mid-Pliocene climates and its restoration under future climates

“…However, recent precipitation trends and subsequent environmental changes show complex spatial and temporal patterns, such that wetting is also taking place in several regions of Tibet (see e.g. Yang et al, 2014;Y. Li et al, 2019), including endorheic basins in interior Tibet.…”

“…Several studies (Zhang et al, 2011;G. Zhang et al, , 2017Lei et al, 2014;Y. Li et al, 2019) reported on rising lake levels and expanding lake areas on the TP.…”

“…Li et al, 2019) reported on rising lake levels and expanding lake areas on the TP. Besides enhanced glacier melt, increasing precipitation is regarded as the main driver of rising lake levels (G. Zhang et al, , 2017Lei et al, 2014;Y. Li et al, 2019).…”

Interannual Variability of Precipitation Recycle Ratio Over the Tibetan Plateau

“…They have the advantage of simple calculation but are unable to identify the source of the moisture. Euler based methods include water vapor tracer model (Y. Li et al., 2019; C. Zhang, Tang, et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2019) and atmospheric models with water vapor tracer technology incorporated (Pan et al., 2019), both of which can provide information of moisture sources and water cycle process, but they also have disadvantages of ignoring the vertical shear of the circulation and model dependency. The Lagrange based methods can provide more information about the vertical motion of the particles, but they still suffer from the limited consideration of the cloud process (Chen et al., 2012, 2019; W. Huang et al., 2018; Sun & Wang, 2014; K. Xu et al., 2020; Y. Xu & Gao, 2019; S. Yang et al., 2020).…”

Seasonality of moisture supplies to precipitation over the Third Pole: a stable water isotopic perspective

“…affecting precipitation accuracy in mountainous regions as on the TP (e.g., 4 – 6 ). Numerous efforts have been done to shed light on water supplies to various parts of the TP 7 – 9 , but an overall picture of moisture supply across the TP with seasons is still lacking. Yet a complete understanding of water supplies seasonality to various parts of the TP will facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between the summer Indian monsoon and prevailing winter westerlies, which controls the seasonal shifts of precipitation amounts and sources 10 over the TP known as Asian water tower 11 , and helps project, given an accurate understanding of the controlling mechanism in each sector, future hydrological scenarios.…”