Characterizing regional precipitation-driven lake area change in Mongolia

Abstract

Lake area is an important indicator for climate change and its relationship with climatic factors is critical for understanding the mechanisms that control lake level changes. In this study, lake area changes and their relations to precipitation were investigated using multi-temporal Landsat Thermatic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thermatic Mapper plus (ETM+) images collected from 10 different regions of Mongolia since the late 1980s. A linear-regression analysis was applied to examine the relationship between precipitation and lake area change for each region and across different regions of Mongolia. The relationships were interpreted in terms of regional climate regime and hydromorphological characteristics. A total of 165 lakes with areas greater than 10 hm 2 were identified from the Landsat images, which were aggregated for each region to estimate the regional lake area. Temporal lake area variability was larger in the Gobi regions, where small lakes are densely distributed. The regression analyses indicated that the regional patterns of precipitation-driven lake area changes varied considerably (R 2 =0.028-0.950), depending on regional climate regime and hydromorphological characteristics. Generally, the lake area change in the hot-and-dry Gobi regions showed higher correlations with precipitation change. The precedent two-month precipitation was the best determining factor of lake area change across Mongolia. Our results indicate the usefulness of regression analysis based on satellite-derived multi-temporal lake area data to identify regions where factors other than precipitation might play important roles in determining lake area change.

Effects of Different Grazing Systems on Aboveground Biomass and Plant Species Dominance in Typical Chinese and Mongolian Steppes

“…Landscape fragmentation and frequent natural disasters, such as droughts and sand storms, have resulted in the rapid reduction of aboveground grassland biomass and the degeneration of community plant succession [7,8]. These effects have been studied from the perspectives of climatology, hydrology, and ecology [9,10].…”

Water in Central Asia: an integrated assessment for science-based management

“…Alterations of the hydrology often reinforce such changes in hydrogeochemistry. Precipitation patterns have changed, and these changes, in combination with drying trends of water bodies due to increasing temperatures and have resulted in loss of water bodies, including drying lakes and retreating glaciers (Unger-Sayesteh et al 2013;Kang et al 2015). Moreover, climate change and land reclamation for agriculture andin some regions-mining are important drivers of the degradation of both forests and riparian zones Kopp et al 2016;Lange et al 2015).…”

Climate-Driven Changes in Lake Areas for the Last Half Century in the Valley of Lakes, Govi Region, Southern Mongolia

“…Natural Science Lakes can be taken as an indicator of changing climate and increase or shrinkage in response to the changing climate [e.g., 9,10]. Lake area is an important indicator for climate change and its relationship with climatic factors is critical for understanding the mechanisms that control lake level changes [11]. Understanding geomorphic evolution of lacustrine landscape and estimating the changes in lake areas in southern Mongolia are important because of its contribution to review the paleo and modern climatic and environmental history in Mongolia and Central Asia.…”

“…Davaa [23] presented changes in water resources including flow of rivers, lake levels and the size of glaciers in Mongolia based on field-monitoring data, hydrological analyses utilizing GIS and remote sensing data. Kang et al [11] investigated lake area changes and their relations to precipitation for 165 lakes in different regions of Mongolia based on a linear regression analysis. Szumińska [24] analyzed changes in surface area of Lakes Buun Tsagaan and Orog during the last 40 years in the context of water storage and in relation to climate conditions (air temperature, precipitation and Table 1.…”