Recovered Tibetan antelope at risk again

Pei, Jie; Wang, Li; Xu, Wenjing; Kurz, David J.; Geng, Jianghui; Han, Fang; Guo, Xin‐Lei; Niu, Zheng

doi:10.1126/science.aaz2900

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This resulted in an expansion of the three lakes and led to a significant modification in the western, southern, and eastern shorelines of the Zonag Lake (Liu et al 2016 b , 2019). The retreat of the lake's water resulted not only in a large increase in the distance for the antelopes’ access to lake water, but the creation of a new dry sand‐filled river bed is caused by the erosion and affected the migratory path of the Tibetan antelope from the TRHR to the southern shore of Zonag Lake (Liu et al 2016 a , Pei et al 2019). The development of this split was observed to cause changes in the sandstorm frequency and area of the lake, thus to impact on species access to food and water resources at a critical part of their annual activity cycle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cascading implications of a single climate change event for fragile ecosystems on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

Chen

Zhou

et al. 2020

Ecosphere

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With changing climates globally, we see changes in not just average conditions, but also in extreme events, and such events require special attention due to their unpredictable yet significant impact on native biotas. One such event is the formation of a landscape scar at Zonag Lake caused by a climate change-induced outburst flooding event that occurred on 15 September 2011. During the winter, the scar region became a new birthplace for sandstorms, and since the flooding, remote sensing monitoring shows that between 2011 and 2020, there were 285 sandstorm days (between November and March), relative to none prior. The outburst flooding event and consequential sandstorms threaten the key lambing area of the Tibetan antelope (Chiru), affect the water balance of the Zonag Lake and downstream lakes, and may even impact on the flow in the Yangtze River. Active human intervention may be needed to repair this new desert spit and reverse the slew of consequences which may otherwise lead to significant population declines in one of the major Chiru breeding grounds due to the progressive loss of vegetation productivity across their main breeding area.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cascading implications of a single climate change event for fragile ecosystems on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

Chen

Zhou

et al. 2020

Ecosphere

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“…CryoSat-2 data were processed after Xue et al (2018) and were used to investigate water level variations between 2010 and 2018. Both lakes were observed by the ICESat satellite two or three times a year (Phan et al, 2012) and by the CryoSat-2 satellite every 2 or 3 months (Kleinherenbrink et al, 2015;Jiang et al, 2017). Notably, the two datasets are referenced to different ellipsoids and geoid heights.…”

Section: Satellite Observationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of downstream lakes to Aru glacier collapses on the western Tibetan Plateau

et al. 2021

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Abstract. The lower parts of two glaciers in the Aru range on the western Tibetan Plateau (TP) collapsed on 17 July and 21 September 2016, respectively, causing fatal damage to local people and their livestock. The giant ice avalanches, with a total volume of 150 × 106 m3, had almost melted by September 2019 (about 30 % of the second ice avalanche remained). The impact of these extreme disasters on downstream lakes has not been investigated yet. Based on in situ observation, bathymetry survey and satellite data, we explore the impact of the ice avalanches on the two downstream lakes (i.e., Aru Co and Memar Co) in terms of lake morphology, water level and water temperature in the subsequent 4 years (2016–2019). After the first glacier collapse, the ice avalanche slid into Aru Co along with a large amount of debris, which generated great impact waves in Aru Co and significantly modified the lake's shoreline and underwater topography. An ice volume of at least 7.1 × 106 m3 was discharged into Aru Co, spread over the lake surface and considerably lowered its surface temperature by 2–4 ∘C in the first 2 weeks after the first glacier collapse. Due to the large amount of meltwater input, Memar Co exhibited more rapid expansion after the glacier collapses (2016–2019) than before (2003–2014), in particular during the warm season. The melting of ice avalanches was found to contribute to about 23 % of the increase in lake storage between 2016 and 2019. Our results indicate that the Aru glacier collapses had both short-term and long-term impacts on the downstream lakes and provide a baseline in understanding the future lake response to glacier melting on the TP under a warming climate.

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“…Lake expansion inundated grassland and infrastructures (e.g. road and bridges) in the surrounding area, which not only led to enormous economic loss, but also serious ecological and environmental problems (Yao et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2019;Pei et al, 2019). Memar Co is no exception.…”

Section: Implications Of Lake Expansion At Memar Comentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This sudden process was captured by Cryosat satellite, which shows that there was 12.6 m lake level drop at Zhuonai Lake after the outburst (Hwang et al, 2019;Li et al, 2019). The newly formed riverbanks caused by the outburst flood obstructed the traditional migration route of antelopes and had serious ramifications for antelope survival (Pei et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking the impacts of the Aru glacier collapses on downstream lakes

Lei

Tian

Sheng

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Two giant glaciers at the Aru range, western Tibetan Plateau, collapsed suddenly on 17 July and 21 September 2016, respectively, causing fatal damage to local people and their livestock. The ice avalanches, with a total volume of 150 × 106 m3, had almost melted by September 2019. Based on in-situ observation, bathymetry survey and satellite data, here we show the impacts of the two glacier collapses on the downstream lakes, the outflow Aru Co and the terminal Memar Co, in terms of lake morphology, water level and water temperature in the subsequent four years (2016–2019). After the first glacier collapse, the ice avalanche slid into Aru Co along with a large amount of debris, which significantly modified the lake’s shoreline and bathymetry. Lake surface temperature (LST) at Aru Co and Memar Co exhibited a significant decrease of 2–4 oC in the first 1–2 weeks after the first glacier collapse due to the intruding ice into Aru Co and its melting. Memar Co significantly deepened by 12.5 m between 2000 and 2018, with accelerated lake level increase after the glacier collapses. Memar Co expanded rapidly at a rate of 0.80 m/yr between 2016 and 2019, which is about 30 % higher than the average rising rate between 2003 and 2014. The meltwater from ice avalanches was found to contribute to about 26.4 % of the increase in lake storage between 2016 and 2019. This study implies that the Aru glacier collapses had long-term and dramatic impacts on the downstream lakes.

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Recovered Tibetan antelope at risk again

Cited by 22 publications

References 8 publications

Cascading implications of a single climate change event for fragile ecosystems on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

Cascading implications of a single climate change event for fragile ecosystems on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

Response of downstream lakes to Aru glacier collapses on the western Tibetan Plateau

Tracking the impacts of the Aru glacier collapses on downstream lakes

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