Southeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Research Articles

A rapid transition from spruce-fir to pine-broadleaf forests in response to disturbances and climate warming on the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

A rapid transition from spruce-fir to pine-broadleaf forests in response to disturbances and climate warming on the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

New Yuomys rodents from southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau indicate low elevation during the Middle Eocene

Yuomysare medium-sized Hystricomorpha rodents. They are known for coming from areas of low elevation in China during the middle and late Eocene. Two newYuomyswere discovered from a locality near Xueshuo village in Litang County, Sichuan Province. The locality lies in the Gemusi pull-apart basin formed in the Litang Fault System (LTFS) in the Hengduan Mountains. The current average elevation is about 4200 m. One of the two newYuomysis larger and shows clear lophodont and unilateral hypsodont morphology, similar toYuomys yunnanensis, which was discovered as being from the early middle Eocene (Irdinmanhan, Asian Land Mammal Ages) in the Chake Basin of Jianshui County, Yunnan Province. The Chake Basin is one of the small pull-apart basins formed in the Xianshuihe-Xiaojiang Fault system (XSH-XJF). The other newYuomysrodent is smaller, brachydont, and less lophodont than the larger new species. The small newYuomysis smaller than all knownYuomysexceptYuomys huheboerhensis, which is from the early middle Eocene Irdinmanhan of Inner Mongolia in Northern China. Given their narrow biochronological distribution and presumably preferred living environment, the occurrence ofYuomysin the pull-apart basins in LTFS and XSH-XJF suggests that the two deep fault systems probably started strike-slip movement by the early middle Eocene, about 49–45 million years ago. Well-studied middle Eocene mammalian faunas from Henan and Inner Mongolia includeYuomys, primates, and other low elevation forest mammals. We suggest that the two newYuomysspecies reported here probably also lived in a similar low elevation forest environment.

Changes in woody species beta diversity in forest communities reveal conservation priorities in the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Changes in woody species beta diversity in forest communities reveal conservation priorities in the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Ecological Sensitivity Assessment of the Southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using GIS and AHP—A Case Study of the Nyingchi Region

This paper took the Nyingchi area in southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region of China as the research area, and selected five indicators of elevation, slope, slope direction, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and water body as the evaluation system based on the current situation of domestic and foreign research and field investigation. The indicators were analyzed by the AHP method for weighting, and then an ArcGIS overlay analysis was applied. The results show that the ecological sensitivity of the Nyingchi region is generally increasing from the south of Nyingchi to the north of Nyingchi. The northern, western and southwestern parts of Nyingchi are extremely sensitive or highly sensitive, while the southern part is mostly insensitive or mildly sensitive ecologically. The proportions of areas for each sensitivity level are: not sensitive 54.81%, light sensitive 11.97%, moderately sensitive 10.34%, highly sensitive 8.65%, and extremely sensitive 14.23%. The results indicate that the overall ecological sensitivity of the Nyingchi region is low and this region is performing well with respect to ecological environmental protection. This study can provide some suggestions for targeted improvements of the ecological environmental protection in the Nyingchi region and even in the Tibetan Plateau region.

Biodiversity and ecological network of epiphytic bryophytes and their host trees in the forests of the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), the highest and largest plateau in the world, plays a vital role in maintaining the balance of the global ecosystem and China's ecological barriers. The QTP ecosystems are facing serious challenges under the scenario of global climate change. Epiphytic plant diversity is one of the most significant contributors to forest diversity. Epiphytic bryophytes play an important role in forest ecosystem functioning. However, previous studies of epiphytic bryophyte diversity have rarely considered both phorophyte diversity and their ecological networks, factors that are crucial for revealing the ecological processes of community assembly and the mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance and ecosystem stability. We investigated the diversity of epiphytic bryophytes and their host trees in 18 forest sites in the southeastern QTP and analyzed the characteristics of their ecological network. A total of 57 epiphytic bryophyte species in 35 genera and 24 families and 72 individuals of host trees belonging to 14 genera and 10 families were recorded. Epiphytic bryophyte species on Picea, Abies, and Sorbus accounted for 77% of all species. The ecological network structure of epiphytic bryophytes-phorophytes exhibited low connectance and nestedness and a low degree of specialization. The cover of epiphytic bryophytes was significant positively correlated with host tree size (diameter at breast height) and not significantly correlated with bark roughness. Both tree size and bark roughness were weakly positively correlated with epiphytic bryophyte richness. The study results showed that increasing tree diversity is essential for the maintenance of the epiphytic bryophyte diversity in forests of the QTP. Biodiversity conservation of epiphytic bryophytes is consistent with conservation of their host trees.

Assessment of the hazard of extreme low-temperature events over China in 2021

In January 2021, an impressive extreme low-temperature event (ELTE) occurred in China, bringing record-breaking low temperatures to some regions. The comprehensive hazard and the overall situation of ELTEs in the whole of 2021 are still unclear. Accordingly, the overview of ELTEs over the mainland in 2021 and their hazards were systematically reviewed and comprehensively evaluated by using an improved identification and assessment method, which can objectively determine the hazard levels of ELTEs and distinguish spatial differences in the hazard of a single event. A total of 20 ELTEs occurred in 2021; their intensity was remarkably higher than the climatology, while the impacted area and duration were lower than or near the climatology, indicating a normal hazard. In general, the losses of low-temperature related disasters in 2021 were relatively less than the average loss in the past ten years, which is likely related to the low proportion of higher-than-moderately low events in the whole year. ELTEs in 2021 had large impacts on Northwest, North and Northeast China and small impacts on the southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and western parts of Southwest China. Winter and autumn had a higher-than-normal hazard index for ELTEs due to two high-hazard events in early-to-mid January and early-to-mid November, respectively. These two high-hazard events showed different spatial impacts. The former mainly affected central and eastern parts of China. However, the latter mostly attacked central and western parts of China, especially resulting in high-hazard in parts of Xinjiang.

Freeze-thaw erosion mechanism and preventive actions of highway subgrade soil in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Freeze-thaw erosion is widely distributed in China, where the difference of natural conditions brings a series of characteristics for different regions. The alpine meadow area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) has a special climate, geography, and hydrogeology environment, with multiple road frost heaves and frost boiling failures, which seriously threaten the highway constructions in the QTP. This study summarizes the freeze–thaw geology of the southeastern QTP. For the highway constructions in the frozen soil areas, multiple problems such as frost heave, thawing settlement, freeze–thaw weathering, and pavement cracks and highway operation and management issues may rise as a result of the activity of the freeze–thaw geology, which damages the subgrade structure. To prevent the occurrence of possible hazards and reduce hazards and risks, this study discusses a series of countermeasures and suggestions. A case history is referred to, specifically the Budongquan highway in the QTP, where the study section is conducted, to evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted treatment measures. The results show that these treatment measures effectively prevent the surface water from infiltrating into the subgrade in the rainy season, block the migration of groundwater to the upper subgrade during the freezing season, and discharge the water accumulated in the subgrade as soon as possible after thawing. Thus, this study further understanding of the long-term durability and stability of subgrade, and provide useful information for the structure design of the highway subgrade in cold regions.

Deciphering environmental factors driving soil microbial elevational distribution in the southeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) has been ranked as one of the main hotspots of biodiversity. Many studies on microbial diversity and structure have been investigated in QTP, whereas the joint impacts of environmental properties and geographic distance that influence microbial communities along altitudinal gradient is yet poorly understood. In this paper, we investigated sites along the elevational gradient of 3270–4530 m on the southeast QTP in China, characterizing environmental properties, and systematically examined the composition, diversity patterns and the driving factors of soil microbial community structures. Elevation led to distinct changes in environmental properties. Bacterial α-diversity did not differ significantly among elevations, whereas fungal α-diversity showed a decrease pattern, which could be attributed to changes in temperature, soil moisture, pH and total carbon content. The dominant bacterial and fungal phyla were Actinobacteria (30.4%), Proteobacteria (24.1%) and Acidobacteria (14.7%), and Ascomycota (52.3%), Basidiomycota (32.6%) and Mortierellomycota (13.9%), respectively. Notable distance-decay of microbial community was observed across environmental factors and geographic distance. Partial Mantel tests indicated that differences in bacterial community were driven by the joint impacts of environmental factors and geographic distance, while differences in fungal community were primarily driven by a sole impact of environmental factors. The multiple regression on matrices (MRM) model explained 79% of the variability in bacterial community similarity, with pH being the most important variables, followed by soil moisture, elevation, AK content and geographic distance. The proportion of variance explained by MRM model was 55%, with elevation and TN content being the main variables altering the soil fungal structure. In summary, our findings suggested that α-diversity patterns, and the driving factors of the bacterial and fungal community structure were different, and environmental factors and geographic distance played different roles on the bacterial and fungal community structures.

Landscape Ecological Risk Assessment and Impact Factor Analysis of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

The Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems worldwide. Over the last few decades, the QTP has been subjected to increasing external pressures, such as climate change, human activity, and natural hazards. Therefore, ecological risk assessment is vital for the environmental protection and sustainable development of the QTP. A landscape ecological risk (LER) assessment based on landscape disturbance and vulnerability was performed to explore the spatiotemporal characteristics associated with LER in the QTP from 1990 to 2020. Furthermore, the impact of LER was quantitatively evaluated with a boosted regression tree model. Results showed that more than 70% of the locations in the QTP exhibited below-medium LER. The LER for the QTP demonstrated downward trends from 1990 to 2020. The LER presented downward trends during the periods from 1990 to 2001 and from 2012 to 2020 and no significant trend during the period from 2002 to 2011. Additionally, high-LER areas were concentrated in the northwestern QTP, whereas low-LER areas were mainly in the southeastern QTP. The LER displayed clustering characteristics across the QTP. Changes in climate, topographic distribution, and human activity influenced the ecological stability of the study area. Precipitation and temperature had the strongest effects on the LER, followed by elevation and grazing intensity. Lower precipitation and temperatures were associated with higher LER. Our results provide precise and specific support for the environmental protection and ecological management of the QTP and other ecologically fragile areas.

Traditional beliefs, culture, and local biodiversity protection: An ethnographic study in the Shaluli Mountains Region, Sichuan Province, China

Located on the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Shaluli Mountains Region (SMR) is an important conservation priority area in Southwest China’s highly biodiverse Hengduan Mountains. The SMR’s ecology is complex and topographically diverse, with unique composition of abundant flora and fauna. Historically and currently a majority-Tibetan region, Tibetan Buddhism has significantly affected most local people’s views on the natural environment. According to Tibetan religious theories and doctrines, the Shaluli Tibetans traditionally abstain from killing wild animals, believe in reincarnation (e.g., karmic cause and effect), the equality of all living beings, and the belief that everything has spirits. To understand how these beliefs and practices influenced the SMR’s ecology and biodiversity, and how modernization pressures affect them, we conducted a three-year ethnobiological field investigation in seven SMR counties and a neighboring city. The traditional worldview in this relatively remote region has profoundly shaped the lifestyles, customs, and behavioral norms of the local religiously-observant Tibetans. These beliefs have influenced their perspective on the natural world, having an overall positive role in the long-term protection of the local ecological environment and biodiversity. As the surrounding regions have experienced increasing development and modernization pressures that threaten this biodiversity hotspot, Shaluli’s Tibetan Buddhist temples and monks have assumed an active role promoting environmental protection, forest resource stewardship, and wildlife conservation. However, we found that modernization pressures and changing socio-economic conditions have negatively influenced these traditions, resulting in greater likelihood of biological invasions and pollution of the local soil and water sources.

Glacier Mass Balance Based on Two Digital Elevation Models and Ground Observation Records for the Baishui River Glacier No. 1 in Yulong Snow Mountain, Southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Glacier mass balance is a key idea in understanding the relationship between glaciers and climate. In this study, Landsat images, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, and Advance Land Operation Satellite digital elevation models, and ground observation records for 2000–2010 and 2019–2020 were used to analyze a mass balance of the Baishui River Glacier No. 1 (BRG1) in Yulong Snow Mountain, southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Both glaciological and geodetic methods were used to understand the spatial pattern of the mass balance. A mass balance contour line map of the glacier was created for the first time. From 2000 to 2010, the mean annual mass balance of the BRG1 was calculated to be -0.99 m w.e., -1.01 m w.e., and −1.18 m w.e. using the contour line, profile curve, and geodetic methods, respectively. In addition, the analysis revealed that strong melting of the glacier occurred from July 27 to 15 September 2019, with an averaged glacier mass balance of -1.75 m w.e. and a mean daily melting rate of 35 mm w.e. The annual mass balance was assessed to be −1.31 m w.e. during 2019/20 using the contour line method. In addition, the spatial patterns on the mass balance contour maps for 2000–2010 and the summer of 2019, and the climate change in this region were analyzed. The results indicate that the increased air temperature was the main cause of the accelerated glacial melting.

Application of machine learning methods for snow avalanche susceptibility mapping in the Parlung Tsangpo catchment, southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Determining the snow avalanche-prone areas is fundamental for risk mitigation in the snowy mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, especially in the context of current climate warming. We use the Parlung Tsangpo catchment in southeastern Tibet as an example, collect 381 snow avalanches through field surveys. On this basis, two sample sets, three combinations of conditioning factor, and four machine learning algorithms involving Support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), Classification and Regression Tree (CART), and Multilayer perceptron (MLP) are compared to produce snow avalanche susceptibility maps. The Kappa coefficient and ROC curve are used for the accuracy test. The results show that four basic models all have good prediction capability, and the most robust one is SVM, while the comparative sample set and two comparative combinations of factors underperform. The high snow avalanche-prone areas are mainly distributed at the Ranwu-Yupu section along the National Road 318 in the upper narrow valley section of Parlung Tsangpo River, the ridges of the mountains on both sides of the middle and lower reaches, and the narrow valley sections of the tributaries. The finding not only verifies the applicability of these four machine learning algorithms in the snow avalanche susceptibility mapping, but also points out the key areas for the local snow avalanche disaster reduction and prevention. This study can provide a good reference for other snowy mountainous regions lacking well-documents of snow avalanches.

Simulation of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood in Southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—A Case Study of JiwenCo Glacial Lake

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) is one of the main natural disasters in alpine areas, which can cause extreme destruction to downstream settlements and infrastructures. A moraine-dammed lake named JiwenCo glacial lake (JGL) in the southeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau failed on 26 June 2020, destroying many buildings, roads, bridges, and farmlands along the flow path. We reconstructed the process of this GLOF event by the Hydrological Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) and examined the JGL’s evolution (area, length, and volume) before its outburst, based on the measured cross sections and hydrological data, videos, and pictures taken by inhabitants, DEM data, and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)/Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+)/Operational Land Imager (OLI) images. The result showed that area, length, and volume of the JGL increased by 0.20 ± 0.07 km2, 0.66 ± 0.03 km, and 0.03 ± 0.001 km3 from 1988 to 2020 (before the outburst), respectively. Approximately 0.05 km3 of water volume was discharged with the dropped water level of 15.63 m after the outburst. The peak flow was 534.4 m3/s at breach and increased to 1,408.11 m3/s at Zhongyu town. The difference between the simulated and measured peak flows in Zhongyu town was 41.88 m3/s (3.53%), showing the high accuracy of the modeling results. For villages along the river-channel, the highest velocity was found in Yiga village (14.23 m/s) and the lowest was in Gongwa village (1.22 m/s). The maximum depth was gradually increased as the river reached downstream, 8.03 m in Yiga village and 50.96 m in Duiba village. The combination of landslide, high temperature, and extremely heavy precipitation resulted in this GLOF disaster. An integrated disaster prevention and mitigation plan needs to be developed for susceptible areas such as Niduzangbo basin that experienced two GLOFs in recent 10 years.

Distinct impacts of vapor transport from the tropical oceans on the regional glacier retreat over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

An influence of precipitation on the glacier changes over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is investigated in this paper. The results show that the glacial loss rates of glaciers in the QTP are significantly correlated with the interannual changes of precipitation and low cloud cover. The water vapor, importing with the warm and wet airflows from the Asian Monsoon regions, significantly influence the precipitation in the southern and northern glacier areas of the QTP in the summer monsoon season. The three-dimensional changes of water vapor transport can lead to the difference of water balance between different glacier areas. Under global warming, the northwest QTP is in the ascending branch of the vertical water driven thermally by the tropical Indian Ocean. The warm water vapor from the tropical ocean climbs to the QTP, forming a significant supply effect of precipitation in the northwestern glacier area, which makes the glacier retreat at a relatively slow rate. Meanwhile, the southern and southeastern QTP regions are in the descending branch of vapor transport with the declining trend in the lower troposphere, which lead to the shortage water supply aggravating the glacier loss in the southern and southeastern QTP.

New Discoveries of Quaternary Glacial Relics in the Low Latitudes of the Southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

New Discoveries of Quaternary Glacial Relics in the Low Latitudes of the Southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Multiple Effects of Topographic Factors on Spatio-Temporal Variations of Vegetation Patterns in the Three Parallel Rivers Region, Southeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Topographic factors are critical for influencing vegetation distribution patterns, and studying the interactions between them can enhance our understanding of future vegetation dynamics. We used the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (MODIS NDVI) image dataset (2000–2019), combined with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and vegetation type data for trend analysis, and explored NDVI variation and its relationship with topographic factors through an integrated geographically-weighted model in the Three Parallel Rivers Region (TPRR) of southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) in the past 20 years. Our results indicated that there was no significant increase of NDVI in the entire basin between 2000–2019, except for the Lancang River basin. In the year 2004, abrupt changes in NDVI were observed across the entire basin and each sub-basin. During 2000–2019, the mean NDVI value of the whole basin increased initially and then decreased with the increasing elevation. However, it changed marginally with variations in slope and aspect. We observed a distinct spatial heterogeneity in vegetation patterns with elevation, with higher NDVI in the southern regions NDVI than those in the north as a whole. Most of the vegetation cover was concentrated in the slope range of 8~35°, with no significant difference in distribution except flat land. Furthermore, from 2000 to 2019, the vegetation cover in the TPRR showed an improving trend with the changes of various topographic factors, with the largest improvement area (36.10%) in the slightly improved category. The improved region was mainly distributed in the source area of the Jinsha River basin and the southern part of the whole basin. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) analysis showed that elevation was negatively correlated with NDVI trends in most areas, especially in the middle reaches of Nujiang River basin and Jinsha River basin, where the influence of slope and aspect on NDVI change was considerably much smaller than elevation. Our results confirmed the importance of topographic factors on vegetation growth processes and have implications for understanding the sustainable development of mountain ecosystems.

Hydrochemical Characteristics and Cause Analysis of Natural Water in the Southeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

This study investigated the hydrochemical characteristics and formation mechanism of natural water in the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. To this end, 19 groundwater samples were collected, tested, and analyzed using various methods, such as mathematical statistics, a Piper diagram, correlation analysis, Gibbs plots, and an ion ratio analysis. The results show that the dominant anions are HCO3− and SO42−, and the dominant cations are Ca2+ and Mg2+, which accounted for 98.50% and 85.94% of the total amount of anions and cations, respectively. The samples were weakly alkaline water, where the TDS (total dissolved solids) ranged from 28.00 mg/L to 242.00 mg/L, with an average value of 129.10 mg/L. The hydrochemical types were mainly Ca·Mg-HCO3·SO4—accounting for 42.10%. The hydrochemical evolution process was found to be mainly controlled by the weathering and dissolution of carbonate and silicate rocks. The main sources of Na+ and K+ are rock salt and silicate rocks, and those of Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3−, and SO42− are from the dissolution of dolomite, calcite, gypsum, and other calcium and magnesium bearing minerals. In addition, atmospheric precipitation serves as a replenishment source of natural water in the region, and the recharge is affected by evaporation.

Species diversity of fishes in the Dingqu River Basin, tributary of the upper Yangtze River, China.

BackgroundThe Dingqu River Basin, a major tributary of the upper Yangtze River, is located at southeast edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China. The fishes of this plateau constitute a major faunal component of this basin, particularly Schizothoracinae (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) and Triplophysa (Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae). Hydropower development is an impact that affects natural habitats and biological resources of the upper Yangtze River and this has led to a decrease in biodiversity. This study investigated the species diversity of fishes of the Dingqu River Basin and accumulated basic data for conservation of biodiversity and assessment of ecological health of the upper Yangtze River.New informationThe upper streams of the Jinshajiang River harbours numerous endemic fish species in China. Most of them belong to the Qianghai-Tibet Plateau fish fauna. However, while the fish species of the Jinshajiang River have been well studied, there is still a gap in the research on fish species diversity of the Dingqu River Basin tributary. This study provides information for 18 native fish species belonging to two orders, four families, three subfamilies and eight genera, and is the first complete record of fishes in the Dingqu River Basin, a primary tributary of the Yangtze River. Supplemental information of species diversity in the Jinshajiang River is also provided. The study includes two datasets, which present taxonomic, distribution, habitat condition, endemism and threat information for each species collected from the Dingqu River Basin and historical literature, respectively. In particular, these fish species all have limited distribution within the south-eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau areas of China and could determine the importance of habitat protection for the upper Yangtze River.

A framework for regional ecosystem authenticity evaluation–a case study on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China

Ecosystem authenticity is a concept for understanding the status of an ecosystem and provides useful information for making environmental management plans. However, approaches for quantitative ecosystem authenticity evaluation over large area are still rare. In this study, a conceptual framework of “Pattern-Process-Function-Resilience” is proposed to quantitatively evaluate regional ecosystem authenticity. Firstly, a composite index is calculated to estimate the self-adjustment ability and the level of biodiversity of the ecosystem. Then, the ratio between the composite indices are computed at the final and initial periods, and used to determine whether the ecosystem authenticity is protected or damaged, as well as the degrees to which the authenticity is protected or damaged by categorizing the ratio into five levels. A case study was conducted to quantify and evaluate the ecosystem authenticity over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and the alternative locations of its twenty national parks from 2000 to 2015. Results show that regions with protected or damaged ecosystem authenticity cover about 95% and 5% of the entire QTP, respectively. Five of the twenty national parks alternative locations have damaged ecosystem authenticity. Areas with damaged authenticity are mainly distributed over the southeastern QTP, which suffered from deforestation and increased frequency of mountain hazards, including debris flow, flash flood, landslide, collapse, and snow avalanche. The approach presented in this study is instrumental to support future case-specific management and restoration strategies.

Research on glacier elevation changes in Southeast Tibet based ICESat and CryoSat-2 Data

Based on the comprehensive analysis of ICESat/GLAS14 data from 2003 to 2009 and CryoSat-2/L2I data from 2010 to 2016 in summer season. This paper revealed the elevation changes of mountain glaciers in small watershed scale in southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by using outliner elevation of footprints, spatial matching analysis of DEM and elevation trends simulation methods. The result showed, the data of effective footprints of ICESat is significantly higher than CryoSat data on mountain glaciers. Glaciers in the study area has been regressed significantly from 2003 to 2016, with the average regression rate in the study area is -1.05±0.53ma-1, and a correlation coefficient of 0.72. Compared with the result of other similar studies in southeastern Tibet, the mountain glacier regression rate is credible. Meanwhile, the feasibility of mountain glacier elevation change monitoring in small watershed by CryoSat-2 data has been proven.