Recent land cover changes on the Tibetan Plateau: a review

Cui, Xuefeng; Graf, Hans‐F.

doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9556-8

Cited by 340 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…The recent rapid warming trend is likely to be associated with an increased carbon dioxide content, variation of cloud, ozone depletion ratios, feedback from ice and snow, aerosol, land cover change, and urbanization [14,22,44,45]. However, there is no clear understanding of the physical mechanism of climate change in the TP, and these scientific issues are our study focus in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spatial and Temporal Variation of Temperature in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau during 1971–2015

Yang

Wang

2017

Atmosphere

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Abstract:The Tibetan Plateau (TP), which is well known as "The Third Pole", is of great importance to climate change in East Asia, and even the whole world. In this paper, we selected the monthly temperature (including the monthly mean and the maximum and minimum temperature) during 1971-2015 from 88 meteorological stations on the TP. The data were tested and corrected by using Penalized Maximal F Test (PMFT) based on RHtest. Afterwards, based on the Mann-Kendall test, we analyzed the seasonal and time-interval characteristics on each station in detail. The results show that the TP has experienced significant warming during 1971-2015. When comparing the selected elements, the warming rate of minimum temperature (T min ) is the largest, the mean temperature (T mean ) comes second, and the maximum temperature (T max ) is the smallest. The warming trends in four seasons are significant, and the highest warming rate occurs in winter. The warming trend on the TP has a prominent spatial difference, with a large warming rate on the eastern parts and a small one on the central regions. In different seasons, the warming trends on the TP have different characteristics in the time interval. Since 1998, the warming rate in spring increased markedly, spring has displaced winter as the season with the highest warming rate recently.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spatial and Temporal Variation of Temperature in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau during 1971–2015

Yang

Wang

2017

Atmosphere

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“…These include active land-use and landcover change (e.g. Cui and Graf, 2009) and slow-evolving large-scale climate variability. Attributing changes in the TP warming and glacial retreat is further complicated when climate feedbacks such as increased sunlight duration from reduced cloudiness, increased water vapor and cloud feedback can play an important role in determining the climate response.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity studies on the impacts of Tibetan Plateau snowpack pollution on the Asian hydrological cycle and monsoon climate

et al. 2011

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Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has long been identified to be critical in regulating the Asian monsoon climate and hydrological cycle. In this modeling study a series of numerical experiments with a global climate model are designed to simulate radiative effect of black carbon (BC) and dust in snow, and to assess the relative impacts of anthropogenic CO 2 and carbonaceous particles in the atmosphere and snow on the snowpack over the TP and subsequent impacts on the Asian monsoon climate and hydrological cycle. Simulations results show a large BC content in snow over the TP, especially the southern slope. Because of the high aerosol content in snow and large incident solar radiation in the low latitude and high elevation, the TP exhibits the largest surface radiative flux changes induced by aerosols (e.g. BC, Dust) in snow compared to any other snow-covered regions in the world.Simulation results show that the aerosol-induced snow albedo perturbations generate surface radiative flux changes of 5-25 W m −2 during spring, with a maximum in April or May. BC-in-snow increases the surface air temperature by around 1.0 • C averaged over the TP and reduces spring snowpack over the TP more than pre-industrial to present CO 2 increase and carbonaceous particles in the atmosphere. As a result, runoff increases during late winter and early spring but decreases during late spring and early summer (i.e. a trend toward earlier melt dates). The snowmelt efficacy, defined as the snowpack reduction per unit degree of warming induced by the forcing agent, is 1-4 times larger for BC-in-snow than CO 2 increase during April-July, indicating that BC-in-snow more efficiently accelerates snowmelt because the increased net solar radiation induced by reduced albedo melts the snow more efficiently than snow melt due to warming in the air.Correspondence to: Y. Qian (yun.qian@pnl.gov)The TP also influences the South (SAM) and East (EAM) Asian monsoon through its dynamical and thermal forcing. Simulation results show that during boreal spring aerosols are transported by southwesterly, causing some particles to reach higher altitude and deposit to the snowpack over the TP. While BC and Organic Matter (OM) in the atmosphere directly absorb sunlight and warm the air, the darkened snow surface polluted by BC absorbs more solar radiation and increases the skin temperature, which warms the air above through sensible heat flux. Both effects enhance the upward motion of air and spur deep convection along the TP during the pre-monsoon season, resulting in earlier onset of the SAM and increase of moisture, cloudiness and convective precipitation over northern India. BC-in-snow has a more significant impact on the EAM in July than CO 2 increase and carbonaceous particles in the atmosphere. Contributed by the significant increase of both sensible heat flux associated with the warm skin temperature and latent heat flux associated with increased soil moisture with long memory,

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“…The growth and distribution of plants depend heavily on local climate conditions (Cui and Graf 2009). The region's climate exhibited a tendency toward desiccation, which seriously affected the normal growth and reproduction of vegetation ).…”

Section: Spatiotemporal Changes Of Ndvimentioning

confidence: 99%

The response of vegetation dynamics of the different alpine grassland types to temperature and precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau

Sun

Qin

Yang

2015

Environ Monit Assess

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The spatiotemporal variability of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of three vegetation types (alpine steppe, alpine meadow, and alpine desert steppe) across the Tibetan Plateau was analyzed from 1982 to 2013. In addition, the annual mean temperature (MAT) and annual mean precipitation (MAP) trends were quantified to define the spatiotemporal climate patterns. Meanwhile, the relationships between climate factors and NDVI were analyzed in order to understand the impact of climate change on vegetation dynamics. The results indicate that the maximum of NDVI increased by 0.3 and 0.2 % per 10 years in the entire regions of alpine steppe and alpine meadow, respectively. However, no significant change in the NDVI of the alpine desert steppe has been observed since 1982. A negative relationship between NDVI and MAT was found in all these alpine grassland types, while MAP positively impacted the vegetation dynamics of all grasslands. Also, the effects of temperature and precipitation on different vegetation types differed, and the correlation coefficient for MAP and NDVI in alpine meadow is larger than that for other vegetation types. We also explored the percentages of precipitation and temperature influence on NDVI variation, using redundancy analysis at the observation point scale. The results show that precipitation is a primary limiting factor for alpine vegetation dynamic, rather than temperature. Most importantly, the results can serve as a tool for grassland ecosystem management.

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Recent land cover changes on the Tibetan Plateau: a review

Cited by 340 publications

References 66 publications

The Spatial and Temporal Variation of Temperature in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau during 1971–2015

The Spatial and Temporal Variation of Temperature in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau during 1971–2015

Sensitivity studies on the impacts of Tibetan Plateau snowpack pollution on the Asian hydrological cycle and monsoon climate

The response of vegetation dynamics of the different alpine grassland types to temperature and precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau

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