Abstract
Terrestrial water storage (TWS) variation is crucial for global hydrological cycles and water resources management under climatic changes. In the previous studies, changes in water storage of some part of China have been studied with GRACE data in recent ten years. However, the spatial pattern of changes in water storage over China may be different in a long period. Here, we aimed to present long-term spatial patterns of TWS over China between 1948 to 2015 by unique Global Land Data Assimilation System Version 2 data and identify possible factors to water storage changes. The results revealed that the inner-annual variations in TWS of China exhibited remarkable downward trends with decreased rate of 0.1 cm/yr. Meanwhile, we found that spatial patterns of TWS in China can be divided into three distinct sub-regions of TWS region with increased, TWS region with decreased, TWS region with insignificant variation. The Northeast had decreased trends (−0.05 cm/yr) due to climate change and anthropogenic activities. Urban expansion is a non-ignorable factor to TWS reduction in Jing-Jin-Ji region (r = 0.61); the west had increased from 1948 to 2015 (0.03 cm/yr) due to precipitation increased and recharge by glacier melt; the south had insignificant trends and TWS varied with precipitation (r = 0.78).
Highlights
Terrestrial water storage (TWS) variation is crucial for global hydrological cycles and water resources management under climatic changes
From 1950s to 1965, terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) increased in each month while TWSA decreased from 1960s to 1980
Spatial and temporal patterns of Variations in TWS over China had been studied with Global Land Data Assimilation System version 2 (GLDAS-2) Noah outputs in a long time series and divided spatial patterns of TWSA in China into three sub-regions with different variation characteristics firstly
Summary
Terrestrial water storage (TWS) variation is crucial for global hydrological cycles and water resources management under climatic changes. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite launched in 2002 has provided a new and effective method for water resource research[4]. It provides monthly change information about the mass distribution on the Earth’s surface[5]. We detected the spatial variation patterns of water storage over China for the period 1948–2015 at national and regional scales. This study aims to (1) detect the spatial pattern of TWS over China, (2) detect the regions with significant increases and decreases in TWS, and (3) identify the main factors influencing TWS variations in different regions
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