Abstract
The alpine lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are indicators of climate change. The assessment of lake dynamics on the TP is an important component of global climate change research. With a focus on lakes in the 33° N zone of the central TP, this study investigates the temporal evolution patterns of the lake areas of different types of lakes, i.e., non-glacier-fed endorheic lakes and non-glacier-fed exorheic lakes, during 1988–2017, and examines their relationship with changes in climatic factors. From 1988 to 2017, two endorheic lakes (Lake Yagenco and Lake Zhamcomaqiong) in the study area expanded significantly, i.e., by more than 50%. Over the same period, two exorheic lakes within the study area also exhibited spatio-temporal variability: Lake Gaeencuonama increased by 5.48%, and the change in Lake Zhamuco was not significant. The 2000s was a period of rapid expansion of both the closed lakes (endorheic lakes) and open lakes (exorheic lakes) in the study area. However, the endorheic lakes maintained the increase in lake area after the period of rapid expansion, while the exorheic lakes decreased after significant expansion. During 1988–2017, the annual mean temperature significantly increased at a rate of 0.04 °C/a, while the annual precipitation slightly increased at a rate of 2.23 mm/a. Furthermore, the annual precipitation significantly increased at a rate of 14.28 mm/a during 1995–2008. The results of this study demonstrate that the change in precipitation was responsible for the observed changes in the lake areas of the two exorheic lakes within the study area, while the changes in the lake areas of the two endorheic lakes were more sensitive to the annual mean temperature between 1988 and 2017. Given the importance of lakes to the TP, these are not trivial issues, and we now need accelerated research based on long-term and continuous remote sensing data.
Highlights
Lakes are sensitive to climate change in terms of several aspects of hydrology, meteorology, biology, and limnology [1,2,3,4,5,6]
We investigated the patterns of the area changes of two endorheic lakes and two exorheic lakes at similar latitudes on the central Tibetan Plateau (TP), examined how climatic factors affect these patterns, and explored the differences of evolution patterns and driving mechanisms among these endorheic lakes and exorheic lakes
We found that climate driving factors contributing to area changes for endorheic and exorheic lakes in the 33◦ N zone of the central TP are different: Lake Yagenco and Lake Zhamcomaqiong on the Chiangtang Plateau were sensitive to the annual mean temperature, while Lake Zhamuco and Lake Gaeencuonama in the river source region were sensitive to the annual precipitation
Summary
Lakes are sensitive to climate change in terms of several aspects of hydrology, meteorology, biology, and limnology [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Lake area is one of the most important indicators of changes in the water resources, which play a pivotal role in the eco-environment and human society, especially for lakes in semi-arid regions and cold regions [5,6,7]. Remote sensing has been widely used to monitor lake area changes on a large scale [8,9]. It can be used to depict lake dynamics and to evaluate the influences of climate change and human activities [9,10].
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