Abstract
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China is the largest arid region in Central Asia, and is heavily dependent on glacier melt in high mountains for water supplies. In this paper, glacier and climate changes in Xinjiang during the past decades were comprehensively discussed based on glacier inventory data, individual monitored glacier observations, recent publications, as well as meteorological records. The results show that glaciers have been in continuous mass loss and dimensional shrinkage since the 1960s, although there are spatial differences between mountains and sub-regions, and the significant temperature increase is the dominant controlling factor of glacier change. The mass loss of monitored glaciers in the Tien Shan has accelerated since the late 1990s, but has a slight slowing after 2010. Remote sensing results also show a more negative mass balance in the 2000s and mass loss slowing in the latest decade (2010s) in most regions. This needs further investigation on whether the slowing is general and continuing. In addition, glacier surging occurs more frequently in the Karakoram and Kunlun Mountains.
Highlights
The cryosphere collectively describes the portions of the Earth’s surface where water is in its frozen state, including glaciers and ice sheets, snow cover, permafrost and seasonally frozen ground, river and lake ice, sea ice, ice shelves, icebergs and ice in the atmosphere [1,2,3]
It is well known that populations in Central Asia are heavily dependent on snow and glacier melt for their water supplies [7,8,9]
The glacier area in the Ili River Basin decreased by ~24%, and the absolute area and volume reductions are the largest in the Tien Shan, because of the larger average glacier size
Summary
The cryosphere collectively describes the portions of the Earth’s surface where water is in its frozen state, including glaciers and ice sheets, snow cover, permafrost and seasonally frozen ground, river and lake ice, sea ice, ice shelves, icebergs and ice in the atmosphere [1,2,3]. Shan Shan ranges [9] All these studies have have reached consistently the conclusion that glaciers in Xinjiang shrinking generally in reached consistently the conclusion that glaciers in Xinjiang have have been been shrinking generally in past past decades, the spatial range time period varied betweendifferent differentstudies, studies,and and no no systematic decades, the spatial range andand time period varied between. Addition, it is not not clear clear if the rate of ice loss analysis of recent glacier changes has been performed.
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