Contribution of vanishing mountain glaciers to global and regional terrestrial water storage changes

Abstract

Mountain is called the water towers of the world. Due to high sensitivity and vulnerability to climate change, more attention is paid to the change of water resources in mountain regions, where provide water for environmental and human demands downstream. Mountains glacier, as one of the most important components of terrestrial water storage (TWS), effectively regulates and stabilizes surface water resources. TWS appears to be trending below previous ranges in recent years, and glacier retreating is becoming the primary cause of TWS depletion in mountain regions. However, how much mountain glacier changes contribute to TWS changes around mountain regions is unknown. Here, we combine multi-source datasets to quantify the contribution rate over high-elevation mountain regions. On a global scale, the glacial melting is equivalent to about 49% of the total TWS decline during 2006–2015. TWS and glacier show decreasing trends in most of mountain regions and watersheds of the Third Pole and surroundings (TPs), but the contribution ranges from −23% to 728% in mountain regions and −21% to 99% in watersheds of TPs. There are larger contributions in regions with more glaciers, while smaller in less glacier-covered regions. Glacier together with other storage components play diverse roles across different mountain regions and watersheds, but factors with great influence are glacier, groundwater, soil water, reservoirs and lakes.