Simulating the Evolution of Qiangtang No. 1 Glacier in the Central Tibetan Plateau to 2050

Li, Yemeng; Tian, Lide; Yang, Yi; Moore, John C.; Sun, Sainan; Zhao, Liyun

doi:10.1657/aaar0016-008

Cited by 13 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…1 Glacier (Wang et al ., 2019). Moisture feeding the glaciers in eastern Qiangtang Plateau comes mainly from the Indian monsoon, and both accumulation and ablation of the glaciers occur overwhelmingly during the summer season (Li et al ., 2017). The mean retreat rates of the Qiangtang No.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fate of glacier surface snow‐originating bacteria in the glacier‐fed hydrologic continuums

Liu

et al. 2021

Environmental Microbiology

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Summary Glaciers represent important biomes of Earth and are recognized as key species pools for downstream aquatic environments. Worldwide, rapidly receding glaciers are driving shifts in hydrology, species distributions and threatening microbial diversity in glacier‐fed aquatic ecosystems. However, the impact of glacier surface snow‐originating taxa on the microbial diversity in downstream aquatic environments has been little explored. To elucidate the contribution of glacier surface snow‐originating taxa to bacterial diversity in downstream aquatic environments, we collected samples from glacier surface snows, downstream streams and lakes along three glacier‐fed hydrologic continuums on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results showed that glacier stream acts as recipients and vectors of bacteria originating from the glacier environments. The contributions of glacier surface snow‐originating taxa to downstream bacterial communities decrease from the streams to lakes, which was consistently observed in three geographically separated glacier‐fed ecosystems. Our results also revealed that some rare snow‐originating bacteria can thrive along the hydrologic continuums and become dominant in downstream habitats. Finally, our results indicated that the dispersal patterns of bacterial communities are largely determined by mass effects and increasingly subjected to local sorting of species along the glacier‐fed hydrologic continuums. Collectively, this study provides insights into the fate of bacterial assemblages in glacier surface snow following snow melt and how bacterial communities in aquatic environments are affected by the influx of glacier snow‐originating bacteria.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mean retreat rates of the Qiangtang No. 1 Glacier were about 5 m·yr −1 from 2000 to 2011 (Li et al ., 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fate of glacier surface snow‐originating bacteria in the glacier‐fed hydrologic continuums

Liu

et al. 2021

Environmental Microbiology

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“…L. Liu et al () estimated an annual rate of −0.317 ± 0.027 m year − for glacier surface elevation changes from 2012 to 2016 based on bitemporal TanDEM‐X InSAR data and inferred an accelerating trend of glacier surface thinning over the PIC since the beginning of the 2010s. Y. Li et al () studied the response of the Qiangtang No.1 Glacier to climate warming using an ice flow and degree day coupled model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacier Energy and Mass Balance in the Inland Tibetan Plateau: Seasonal and Interannual Variability in Relation to Atmospheric Changes

Yao

Yang

et al. 2018

JGR Atmospheres

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The Tibetan glaciers are greatly affected by the circulations of the westerlies and the Indian summer monsoon (ISM), but the mechanisms remain to be elucidated. In this project, we investigated the surface energy and mass balance of the Qiangtang No.1 Glacier in the inland Tibetan Plateau. Combining 4-year mass balance and meteorological records near the equilibrium line altitude with an energy-based mass balance model, we found that the meteorological conditions, which determined the glacier surface ablation and mass accumulation, are critically linked to changes in the intensity of the westerlies and the ISM. The 4-year mass balance comparisons demonstrated that the enhancement of the ISM in June and July, especially June, greatly increases the mass accumulation but inhibits the glacial ablation in the melt season, shifting the mass balance in a positive direction. Moreover, the occurrence of the westerlies enhancement interrupts the dominance of the ISM in the melt season. The intensified westerlies in the early melt season (June) could not only reduce the mass accumulation but also enhance the mass loss in the following months. In addition, the enhancement of the westerlies in the main melt season (July) could also greatly influence the local meteorological conditions, with lower temperatures and humidity but higher wind speeds. Such meteorological changes significantly reduce glacial ablation because more energy is consumed by sublimation and/or evaporation, rather than surface melting. These findings will enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying glacier changes and their relationships with the westerlies and the ISM in the inland Tibetan Plateau.

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“…1 Glacier under the historical warming trend of 0.035°C a -1 and the A1B scenario (Y. Li et al 2017). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fifth assessment report (2013) also projects that glaciers worldwide will lose about 15 to 85 percent under different climate scenarios by the end of the twenty-first century.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling past and future variation of glaciers in the Dongkemadi Ice Field on central Tibetan Plateau from 1989 to 2050

Shi

Duan

Nicholson

et al. 2020

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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Glacier mass balance change is among the best indicators of glacier response to climate change. Due to its inaccessibility and limited observation, little is known about the change to the Dongkemadi Ice Field (DIF) in the Tanggula Mountains located in the source region of the Yangtze River in central Tibetan Plateau. Here, an enhanced temperature index-based glacier model considering glacier area change was applied to study the temporal-spatial variation in mass balance on the DIF from 1989 to 2012 and to assess its response to climate change. The model was forced by reconstructed temperature and precipitation from adjacent national meteorological stations and validated by comparing with field observations from the Xiao Dongkemadi Glacier (XDG). Results show that the simulated mass balance is in good agreement with the observations (R 2 = 0.75, p < .001), and the model can reasonably reproduce well the glacier mass change. Then the model was applied to twenty individual glaciers in DIF and forced by the highresolution regional climate model (RegCM3) from 2013 to 2050 to project their further variation. In the future, the mass balance of glaciers in DIF shows a continuously negative trend with a linear rate of −0.16 m water equivalent (w.e.) a −1 in representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and −0.35 m w.e. a −1 in RCP 8.5. Most of the glaciers' equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) will reach or exceed their maximum elevation after the 2030s. By coupling a modified volume-area scaling method with the mass balance model, results showed that areas of the individual glaciers in DIF will lose about 12.10 to 30.66 percent under RCP4.5 and 14.06 to 38.76 percent under RCP8.5, and the volume of the DIF will lose about 1.18 km 3 in RCP4.5 and 1.44 km 3 in RCP8.5 by the end of 2050. In addition, the terminuses of glaciers experienced the largest percentage losses and most of the glaciers' front position will reach~5,520 m a.s.l. in RCP 4.5 and 5,570 m a.s.l. in RCP 8.5, the latter of which is nearly close to the DIF average ELA in 1989. The clearly increasing summer air temperature may be the main reason for glacier shrinkage in the DIF. If the warming trend continues, glaciers in DIF may further retreat with continued glacial melt or even mostly disappear by the end of the century.

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Simulating the Evolution of Qiangtang No. 1 Glacier in the Central Tibetan Plateau to 2050

Cited by 13 publications

References 34 publications

Fate of glacier surface snow‐originating bacteria in the glacier‐fed hydrologic continuums

Fate of glacier surface snow‐originating bacteria in the glacier‐fed hydrologic continuums

Glacier Energy and Mass Balance in the Inland Tibetan Plateau: Seasonal and Interannual Variability in Relation to Atmospheric Changes

Modeling past and future variation of glaciers in the Dongkemadi Ice Field on central Tibetan Plateau from 1989 to 2050

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