Partitioning the contributions of cryospheric change to the increase of streamflow on the Nu River

Yang, Yuheng; Weng, Baisha; Yan, Denghua; Niu, Yongzhen; Dai, Yanyu; Li, Meng; Gong, Xiaoyan

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126330

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The snow depth exhibited a significant decreasing trend in the USR during 2000-2018. The maximum monthly snow depth occurred in December-January, and the lowest monthly snow depth occurred in July-August (Yan et al, 2021). The annual mean fraction of snow cover was about 50 % during 2001-2014, and it was mainly distributed at 4000-6000 m .…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 94%

Future snow changes and their impact on the upstream runoff in Salween

Chai

Wang

Chen

et al. 2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Understanding the hydrological processes related to snow in global mountainous regions under climate change is necessary for achieving regional water and food security (e.g., the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 6). However, the impacts of future snow changes on the hydrological processes in the high mountains of the “Third Pole” are still largely unclear. In this study, we aimed to project future snow changes and their impacts on hydrology in the upstream region of the Salween River (USR) under two shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios (SSP126 and SSP585) using a physically based cryosphere–hydrology model. We found that the climate would become warmer (0.2 ∘C per decade under SSP126 and 0.7 ∘C per decade under SSP585) and wetter (5 mm per decade under SPP126 and 27.8 mm per decade under SSP585) in the USR in the future under these two SSPs. In this context, the snowfall, snow cover, snow water equivalent, and snowmelt runoff are projected to exhibit significant decreasing trends during 1995–2100, and the decreases are projected to be most prominent in summer and autumn. The future (2021–2100) snowmelt runoff is projected to significantly increase in spring compared with the reference period (1995–2014), which would benefit the availability of water resources in the growing season. The annual total runoff would significantly increase in all of the future periods due to increased rainfall, which would increase the availability of water resources within the basin, but the high peak flow that occurs in summer may cause rain flooding with short duration and high intensity. Compared with the reference period (the contribution of snowmelt runoff to the total runoff was determined to be 17.5 %), the rain- and snow-dominated pattern of runoff would shift to a rain-dominated pattern after the near term (2021–2040) under SSP585, whereas it would remain largely unchanged under SSP126. Climate change would mainly change the pattern of the snowmelt runoff, but it would not change the annual hydrograph pattern (dominated by increased rainfall). These findings improve our understanding of the responses of cryosphere–hydrological processes under climate change, providing valuable information for integrated water resource management, natural disaster prevention, and ecological environmental protection at the Third Pole.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 94%

Future snow changes and their impact on the upstream runoff in Salween

Chai

Wang

Chen

et al. 2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…In this study, we adapted the water and energy transfer processes (WEP‐C) model to investigate the sources of streamflow and the age component in the NRW (Jia et al, 2001, 2006). The simulation of WEP‐C model was found to be quite suitable for the alpine watershed, thereby accurately depicting these processes in the hydrological cycle (Table S1–S4) (Yang, Weng, Yan, et al, 2020; Yang, Weng, Yan, Niu, et al, 2021). Table S5 lists the methods used for the main modules of the model.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A preliminary estimate of how stream water age is influenced by changing runoff sources in the Nagqu river water shed, Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

Yang

Weng

Yan

et al. 2021

Hydrological Processes

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Stream water age is an essential indicator of stream water renewal and pollutant transport rates. Recently, the concept of young water fractions, calculated using stable isotopic data, was proposed as a measure of stream water age. However, the current calculation methods do not classify stream water fractions with annual cycles (365 days), which are helpful to understand the sources of runoff and the water renewal rate in the watershed. In this study, we took the Nagqu River Watershed (NRW, with an area of 16 900 km 2 ) as an example and proposed the concept of middle-aged water to solve this problem. We used two time thresholds τ yw and τ ow to divide the stream water age into young water, middle-aged water and old water in runoff and calculated middle-aged water using a distributed hydrological model. The results revealed that in the NRW, an average of 23% of the runoff was less than 51.6 days old, whereas an average of 55% of the runoff had ages ranging from 51.6 to 365 days. The spatial change in stream water age is significantly influenced by the sources of streamflow, evaporation, air temperature and soil moisture. The annual average change in old water storage values were À0.33 km 3 , suggesting that the mean of old water in the NRW decreased from 2016 to 2019. The results of this study are helpful for the study of sources of streamflow and stream water fractions, as well as providing a more effective understanding of the internal hydrological process in a depopulated alpine zone under the impacts of climate change.

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“…Soil was collected from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), which is one of the most sensitive regions to global climate change (Li et al, 2022;Xu et al, 2008). The Nagqu River watershed (NRW) is the source area of the Nu River (Yang et al, 2021a;Yang et al, 2021b) and has the typical features of the QTP: rising air temperature and increased precipitation. The geographical coordinates of the NRW are ~30°54′-32°43′N, ~91°12′-92°54′E, and it is at an elevation of 4140-5897 m a.s.l 70 (Figure 1a).…”

Section: Site Selection and Experiments Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Warming and Increased Precipitation on Soil Microbial Residues on the Qinghai–Tibet Alpine Meadows

Weng

Dong

Yang

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Amino sugars, as the biomarkers of microbial residues, help explore soil microorganisms’ response to global climate change. However, research on how microorganisms in the alpine meadows regulate the soil carbon cycle under the influence of climate change is limited. We hypothesized that climate change might cause different effects on soil microbial residues due to the impact on soil physical properties, chemical properties, and enzyme activities. Therefore, we conducted four-year continuous warming and increased precipitation experiments in the semi-arid grasslands to examine the differences in soil microbial residues at different depths under simulated changes. The results showed warming stimulated the accumulation of microbial residues, while increased precipitation led to their decline. The Glucosamine/Muramic Acid ratio trend indicates that the contribution of fungal residues was more significant than that of bacteria with increased precipitation, whereas that of bacterial residues exceeded that of fungi with warming. The increased precipitation had no significant effect on soil extracellular enzyme activities and amino sugar concentrations. In addition, changes in the different enzyme activities led to soil carbon loss and different amino sugar accumulation patterns under the warming treatment. These results may aid in assessing the responses of soil microorganisms to future climate change scenarios.

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Partitioning the contributions of cryospheric change to the increase of streamflow on the Nu River

Cited by 18 publications

References 43 publications

Future snow changes and their impact on the upstream runoff in Salween

Future snow changes and their impact on the upstream runoff in Salween

A preliminary estimate of how stream water age is influenced by changing runoff sources in the Nagqu river water shed, Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

Effects of Warming and Increased Precipitation on Soil Microbial Residues on the Qinghai–Tibet Alpine Meadows

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