Precipitation trend–Elevation relationship in arid regions of the China

Yao, Junqiang; Yang, Qing; Mao, Weiyi; Zhao, Yong; Xu, Xinbing

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2016.05.007

Cited by 85 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Li et al (2013) found that the snowfall had increased from 1960 to 2010 and deduced that the snowmelt water would increase along with the increasing precipitation in the entire WCRC. In the alpine regions in WCRC, although the temperature rise has increased the snowline causing the reduced snow cover area (IPCC, 2013;Qin et al, 2014), the increased snowfall in the very cold areas (Yao et al, 2016) leads to the increase of local and average snow depth in the river basins in the Tien and Qilian Mountains Ma & Qin, 2012). Therefore, snowmelt has increased in these alpine watersheds.…”

Section: Snow Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Cryospheric Change on Alpine Hydrology: Combining a Model With Observations in the Upper Reaches of the Hei River, China

et al. 2018

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Cryospheric changes have great effects on alpine hydrology, but these effects are still unclear owing to rare observations and suitable models in the western cold regions of China. Based on long‐term field observations in the western cold regions of China, a cryospheric basin hydrological model was proposed to evaluate the cryospheric effects on streamflow in the upper Hei River basin (UHR), and the relationship between the cryosphere and streamflow was further discussed with measured data. The Norwegian Earth System Model outputs were chosen to project future streamflow under scenarios Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP)2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5. The cryospheric basin hydrological model results were well validated by the measured precipitation, streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil temperature, glacier and snow cover area, and the water balance of land cover in the UHR. The moraine‐talus region contributed most of the runoff (60%), even though it made up only about 20% of the area. On average, glacier and snow cover, respectively, contributed 3.5% and 25.4% of the fresh water to the streamflow in the UHR between 1960 and 2013. Because of the increased air temperature (2.9°C/54a) and precipitation (69.2 mm/54a) over the past 54 years, glacial and snowmelt runoff increased by 9.8% and 12.1%, respectively. The increase in air temperature brought forward the snowmelt flood peak and increased the winter flow due to permafrost degradation. Glaciers may disappear in the near future because of their small size, but snowmelt would increase due to increases in snowfall in the higher mountainous areas, and the basin runoff would increase slightly in the future.

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Section: Snow Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Cryospheric Change on Alpine Hydrology: Combining a Model With Observations in the Upper Reaches of the Hei River, China

et al. 2018

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“…This preferential deposition of precipitation has been investigated in some studies (e.g., Lehning et al, ; Gerber et al, ). Many studies show linear increases in precipitation with elevation (Daly et al, ; Lloyd, ; Yao et al, ). Nevertheless, in certain alpine areas in tropical and subtropical zones, such as the Andes Mountains, some African mountain ranges and the Himalaya mountains, precipitation measurements do not increase with elevation above a certain point (Anders et al, ; Hirpa et al, ; Yang et al, ; Anders and Nesbitt, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precipitation fields in an alpine Mediterranean catchment: Inversion of precipitation gradient with elevation or undercatch of snowfall?

Collados‐Lara

Pardo‐Igúzquiza

Pulido-Velázquez

et al. 2018

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The mean precipitation measurements in a Mediterranean Alpine catchment in Sierra Nevada show an inversion of the gradient with the altitude beyond a certain threshold. Is it due to a real pattern or it can be explained by systematic error of solid precipitation measurement in gauges? Can we assess climatic fields in an alpine catchment from gauge measurement? This article describes a research developed to answer both questions in the Alto Genil Basin. As commonly happens in most of the basins, the spatio‐temporal information from climate gauges is limited; therefore to reduce uncertainty in estimates of climatic fields, some secondary information should be introduced. Since orographic conditions clearly influence precipitation, the relationship between this climatic variable and elevation is usually included as secondary information into the estimates. However, while there is a clear relationship between temperature and elevation, the relationship between precipitation and elevation is not so simple. In this article the analysis of the data performed allow us to demonstrate that there is a real inversion of the gradient within this Mediterranean Alpine area as other authors previously pointed in some tropical and subtropical zones. The intensity of this phenomenon and the altitude threshold from which it appears can be altered as a consequence of the undercath of the solid precipitation. To estimate precipitation fields, we have used different hypotheses about the intensity of the undercatch taking into account empirical corrections obtained for nearby mountain ranges. An analysis of the sensitivity of the results to the assumed undercatch hypothesis shows that it is not possible to estimate properly precipitation fields (the sensitivity of the results to the adopted hypothesis is high) in these alpine areas if we only have information about the precipitation measurements at the stations.

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“…Several authors-Zhang et al [27], Tao et al [11], and Li et al [26,29]-have reported a trend toward drought alleviation in Xinjiang based on precipitation-based drought indices from 1961 to 2009 (2012). These suggestions were correlated with an increase in precipitation during the same period [20,47]. However, it should be noted that precipitation, even without the continuously increasing trends in the 1990s, exhibited a slight decreasing trend in the 21st century.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Identification of Drought Events and Correlations with Large-Scale Ocean–Atmospheric Patterns of Variability: A Case Study in Xinjiang, China

et al. 2019

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This research analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of drought in Xinjiang (northwestern China) between 1961 and 2015 using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). Furthermore, the correlations between Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO)/El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events and drought were explored. The results suggested an obvious trend toward aggravated drought, with a significant inflection point in 1997, after which the frequency of drought increased sharply. Spatially, the increase in drought occurred largely in southern and eastern Xinjiang, where occurrences of moderate and extreme drought have become more frequent during the last two decades, whereas northwestern Xinjiang and the Pamir Plateau showed wetting trends. Empirical orthogonal function analysis (EOF) of drought patterns showed a north–south antiphase and an east–west antiphase distribution. The positive (negative) phase of the AMO was related to increased (decreased) drought in Xinjiang, particularly after 1997. During a warm phase (El Niño), major droughts occurred over northern Xinjiang, but they lagged by 12 months. However, not all El Niño and La Niña events were responsible for drought events in northern Xinjiang during this period, and other drivers remain to be identified. This study suggests the possibility of AMO and ENSO links to drought in Xinjiang, but further analysis is needed to better understand such mechanisms.

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Precipitation trend–Elevation relationship in arid regions of the China

Cited by 85 publications

References 28 publications

Effects of Cryospheric Change on Alpine Hydrology: Combining a Model With Observations in the Upper Reaches of the Hei River, China

Effects of Cryospheric Change on Alpine Hydrology: Combining a Model With Observations in the Upper Reaches of the Hei River, China

Precipitation fields in an alpine Mediterranean catchment: Inversion of precipitation gradient with elevation or undercatch of snowfall?

Identification of Drought Events and Correlations with Large-Scale Ocean–Atmospheric Patterns of Variability: A Case Study in Xinjiang, China

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