Changes in snowpack of the Changbai Mountain region over the last decade in reaction to global warming

Abstract

As greenhouse gas emissions have been mounting in recent years, the issue of global warming has become more and more serious, sparking a great deal of concern. Among the effects of global warming, the melting of snowpack is particularly pronounced. However, most of the current researches focus on vegetation and biodiversity, and there are some gaps in studies of snow in the mountainous regions of China. This paper analyzes the Landsat8 satellite images of Changbai Mountain area in the past 10 years through QGIS and programming algorithms to study the trend of snowpack change, the correlation between snow melting and vegetation change and causes of snow melting. The analytical methods used in this paper include NDSI, NDVI, supervised classification and image binarization. From 2014 to 2023, the snow-covered areas in Changbai Nature Reserve have decreased dramatically, especially in northwestern part, middle part and edges of Changbai Mountain. The change rate of snowpack has reached a significant 13.979%. The vegetation area shows an increasing trend and is negatively correlated with snowpack change. In order to alleviate the challenge of snow melting, ecological engineering, new energy sources and rigorous regulation of human activities are all essentially necessary. In the future, it is expected that the research in this paper will have a profound positive impact on the ecological management of the Changbai Mountain region, the conservation of snow resources and the mitigation of global warming.