Sentinel‐Based Inventory of Thermokarst Lakes and Ponds Across Permafrost Landscapes on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

Wei, Zhiqiang; Du, Zheng; Wang, Lei; Lin, Jian; Feng, Yaru; Xu, Qian; Xiao, Cunde

doi:10.1029/2021ea001950

Cited by 46 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 112 publications

(183 reference statements)

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“…Thermokarst lakes are the typical manifestation of thawing and warming permafrost undergoing degradation, and they have been found occurring on the Tibetan Plateau [16], [21], [60]. Our result shows that thermokarst lakes appear to evolve and cluster close to large lakes in Hoh Xil.…”

Section: B Discussion On the Resultssupporting

confidence: 49%

“…The thermokarst lake inventory on the Tibetan Plateau produced by Wei et al [21] was used in this study. The inventory shows that there are totally 54,496 thermokarst lakes in the Hoh Xil region, accounting for about 33.8% of those on the entire Tibetan Plateau.…”

Section: Preparing Inventories Of Thermokarst Lakes and Retrogressive...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Precipitation events could be the principal source of water within the active layer of permafrost in Hoh Xil [15]. Thermokarst lakes and thaw slumps, which are the primary evidences of disturbances on unstable and warming permafrost, have been gradually noticed on the Tibetan Plateau [16]- [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

MT-InSAR Unveils Dynamic Permafrost Disturbances in Hoh Xil (Kekexili) on the Tibetan Plateau Hinterland

Lü

Han

et al. 2023

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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Hoh Xil is an uninhabited extremity secluded on the Tibetan Plateau hinterland. A complete mapping of ground motion variation in Hoh Xil is essential for in-depth understanding of terrain's responses to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau. However, the inaccessibility and extremely harsh environment impeded extensive field investigations on landform alteration and its formative process. Such difficulty can be resolved by Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), which enables a broad detection of subtle permafrost motions at millimeter precision. This study, for the first time, accomplished a Multi-temporal InSAR (MT-InSAR) deformation mapping from 2015 to 2020 in Hoh Xil, with a wide coverage of about 200,000 km 2 . 1,592 Sentinel-1 images were processed based on the small baseline subset (SBAS) technique. The results show that Hoh Xil was experiencing dynamic permafrost disturbances. Thawing permafrost with both the linear subsidence rate higher than 2 mm/yr and the periodic amplitude over 2 mm was primarily detected in areas of flat or gentle slopes. The InSAR cumulative deformation is highly correlated with permafrost thawing depth. Significant lag times were identified between seasonal oscillation of InSAR deformation and land surface temperature (LST). Thermokarst landforms of retrogressive thaw slumps and thermokarst lakes broadly formed and dynamically evolved as a consequence of permafrost degradation. Particularly, widespread thawing permafrost characterized by the spatial clustering of thermokarst lakes appeared to occur in areas adjacent to large lakes. The discovered dynamic permafrost disturbances in Hoh Xil manifested even the secluded Tibetan Plateau hinterland was facing the threat of climate change.

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Section: B Discussion On the Resultssupporting

confidence: 49%

Section: Preparing Inventories Of Thermokarst Lakes and Retrogressive...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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MT-InSAR Unveils Dynamic Permafrost Disturbances in Hoh Xil (Kekexili) on the Tibetan Plateau Hinterland

Lü

Han

et al. 2023

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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“…Abundant thermokarst lakes have developed in the Tibetan alpine permafrost region with a total area of ∼2825.5 km 2 (Wei et al, 2021).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the largest high‐altitude permafrost‐affected zone, the Tibetan alpine permafrost region stores a large amount of N (1802 Tg N in the top three meters, 1 Tg = 1 × 10 12 g; Kou et al, 2019); and has abundant thermokarst lakes (~161,300 thermokarst lakes; Wei et al, 2021) which provide a unique opportunity to explore patterns and drivers of anaerobic N transformations across a broad geographic scale. Using the 15 N pool dilution and 15 N tracing technique (Fortin et al, 2021; Mao et al, 2020), we examined rates of gross N mineralization and ammonium immobilization as well as denitrification, anammox, and DNRA in sediments of 30 thermokarst lakes along a 1100 km transect on the Tibetan Plateau.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and drivers of anaerobic nitrogen transformations in sediments of thermokarst lakes

Mao

Song

Peng

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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Significant attention has been given to the way in which the soil nitrogen (N) cycle responds to permafrost thaw in recent years, yet little is known about anaerobic N transformations in thermokarst lakes, which account for more than one‐third of thermokarst landforms across permafrost regions. Based on the N isotope dilution and tracing technique, combined with qPCR and high‐throughput sequencing, we presented large‐scale measurements of anaerobic N transformations of sediments across 30 thermokarst lakes over the Tibetan alpine permafrost region. Our results showed that gross N mineralization, ammonium immobilization, and dissimilatory nitrate reduction rates in thermokarst lakes were higher in the eastern part of our study area than in the west. Denitrification dominated in the dissimilatory nitrate reduction processes, being two and one orders of magnitude higher than anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), respectively. The abundances of the dissimilatory nitrate reduction genes (nirK, nirS, hzsB, and nrfA) exhibited patterns consistent with sediment N transformation rates, while α diversity did not. The inter‐lake variability in gross N mineralization and ammonium immobilization was dominantly driven by microbial biomass, while the variability in anammox and DNRA was driven by substrate supply and organic carbon content, respectively. Denitrification was jointly affected by nirS abundance and organic carbon content. Overall, the patterns and drivers of anaerobic N transformation rates detected in this study provide a new perspective on potential N release, retention, and removal upon the formation and development of thermokarst lakes.

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Permafrost thaw and thermokarst in the source region of the Yangtze river in the central Tibetan plateau revealed by radar and optical remote sensing

Wang,

Huang,

Zhao

et al. 2024

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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The landscape and landforms in permafrost regions are transforming due to climate change and permafrost thaw. This study uses optical and radar remote sensing, alongside spatial analysis, to examine thermokarst features and their driving factors in the source region of the Yangtze River (SRYR) on the central Tibetan Plateau. We analyse the distribution, interaction, and key environmental factors influencing thermokarst ponds and ground surface deformation, which are the two widespread and noticeable thermokarst features. Since the 1960s, the number of small water bodies has doubled from approximately ~2 × 104 to ~4 × 104 by the 2020s, with the median size of these water bodies decreasing from 2.3 × 104 m2 to 1.4 × 104 m2. The permafrost terrain has an average subsidence rate of 6.8 mm/a. About 50.9% of the SRYR exhibits evident thermokarst features. Surficial geological factors, especially geomorphology and slope, are primary factors in shaping the spatial distributions of thermokarst features. Both seasonal deformation and long‐term subsidence rates are more pronounced in areas with thermokarst ponds. However, once pond coverage exceeds around 5%, the amplifying effect on long‐term subsidence rates and seasonal deformation diminishes. The investigation further reveals that the relationship between seasonal deformation and long‐term subsidence is not strictly linear and that the combined increase in seasonal deformation and long‐term subsidence applies only to areas with seasonal deformation below approximately 20 mm. Beyond this threshold, the long‐term subsidence rate is no longer exacerbated by increased seasonal deformation.

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Sentinel‐Based Inventory of Thermokarst Lakes and Ponds Across Permafrost Landscapes on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

Abstract: At climate-sensitive high-latitude and high-elevation regions, air temperatures have risen about twice as fast as the global average in recent decades (

Cited by 46 publications

References 112 publications

MT-InSAR Unveils Dynamic Permafrost Disturbances in Hoh Xil (Kekexili) on the Tibetan Plateau Hinterland

MT-InSAR Unveils Dynamic Permafrost Disturbances in Hoh Xil (Kekexili) on the Tibetan Plateau Hinterland

Patterns and drivers of anaerobic nitrogen transformations in sediments of thermokarst lakes

Permafrost thaw and thermokarst in the source region of the Yangtze river in the central Tibetan plateau revealed by radar and optical remote sensing

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