Abstract
Lake level is a sensitive integral indicator of climate change on regional scales, especially in enclosed endorheic basins. Eurasia contains the largest endorheic zone with several large terminal lakes, whose water levels recently underwent remarkable variations. To address the patterns of these variations and their links to the climate change, we investigated the variability of levels in 15 lakes of three neighboring endorheic regions—Central Asia, Tibetan Plateau, and Mongolian Plateau. Satellite altimetry revealed a heterogeneous pattern among the regions during 1992–2018: lake levels increased significantly in Central Asia and the Tibetan Plateau but decreased on the Mongolian Plateau. The shifts to the increasing trend were detected since 1997 in Central Asia, since 1998 in the southern part of the Tibetan Plateau, and since 2005 in its northern part. The shift in air temperatures around 1997 and the precipitation shifts around 1998 and 2004 contributed to the trend’s turning points, with precipitation being the major contributor to the heterogeneous pattern of lake levels. Our findings reveal the linkage of the heterogeneous pattern of lake levels to climatic factors in the endorheic basins, providing a further understanding of the hydrological regime in the Eurasian endorheic zone and its sensitivity to climate change.
Highlights
An endorheic basin is a closed or internal drainage system without an outflow into an ocean or a sea
Surface runoff in endorheic basins typically accumulates in large terminal lakes; the largest number of endorheic lakes worldwide is concentrated on the continent of Eurasia, covering Central Asia (CA), the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and the Mongolian Plateau (MP)
To qualify the reasons for the heterogeneous patterns observed in the lake water levels, we examined the relationship between the two major climatic factors—precipitation and air temperature—and the water level of terminal lakes
Summary
An endorheic basin is a closed or internal drainage system without an outflow into an ocean or a sea. The closed character of the hydrological cycle makes endorheic basins especially sensitive to basin-scale climate variations. Endorheic basins are inherent features of intracontinental arid and semiarid regions. The lake levels in those regions present “end points”, accumulating multiple responses of the basin-scale water balance, and are considered to be one of the most sensitive indicators for regional response to climate change. Endorheic lakes play an important role in maintaining biodiversity and providing valuable water support for ecosystem services [1,2]. The endorheic lakes in Mongolia are the main water resource for endangered species and migratory waterfowl [3,4]
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