Seasonal trends and cycles of lake-level variations over the Tibetan Plateau using multi-sensor altimetry data

2021 ◽  
pp. 127251
Author(s):  
Fenglin Xu ◽  
Guoqing Zhang ◽  
Shuang Yi ◽  
Wenfeng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Altimetry Data ◽  
Seasonal Trends

Monitoring lake level changes on the Tibetan Plateau using ICESat altimetry data (2003–2009)

2011 ◽  
Vol 115 (7) ◽  
pp. 1733-1742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoqing Zhang ◽  
Hongjie Xie ◽  
Shichang Kang ◽  
Donghui Yi ◽  
Stephen F. Ackley
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Altimetry Data ◽  
Lake Level Changes

A lake-level chronology based on feldspar luminescence dating of beach ridges at Tangra Yum Co (Southern Tibet)

2015 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eike F. Rades ◽  
Sumiko Tsukamoto ◽  
Manfred Frechen ◽  
Qiang Xu ◽  
Lin Ding
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Luminescence Dating ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Southern Tibet ◽  
Beach Ridges ◽  
Slow Decline ◽  
Fast Decline

Many lakes on the Tibetan Plateau exhibit strandplains with a series of beach ridges extending high above the current lake levels. These beach ridges mark former lake highstands and therefore dating their formation allows the reconstruction of lake-level histories and environmental changes. In this study, we establish a lake-level chronology of Tangra Yum Co (fifth largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau) based on luminescence dating of feldspar from 17 beach-ridge samples. The samples were collected from two strandplains southeast and north of the lake and range in elevation from the current shore to 140 m above the present lake. Using a modified post-infrared IRSL protocol at 170°C we successfully minimised the anomalous fading in the feldspar IRSL signal, and obtained reliable dating results. The luminescence ages indicate three different stages of lake-level decline during the Holocene: (1) a phase of rapid decline (~ 50 m) from ~ 6.4 to ~ 4.5 ka, (2) a period of slow decline between ~ 4.5 and ~ 2.0 ka (~ 20 m), and (3) a fast decline by 70 m between ~ 2 ka and today. Our findings suggest a link between a decrease in monsoonal activity and lake-level decline since the early Holocene.

Long-Term Changes of Lake Level and Water Budget in the Nam Co Lake Basin, Central Tibetan Plateau

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 1312-1322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhong Wu ◽  
Hongxing Zheng ◽  
Bing Zhang ◽  
Dongmei Chen ◽  
Liping Lei
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Water Budget ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Nam Co ◽  
Long Term Changes ◽  
Nam Co Lake

Abstract Long-term changes in the water budget of lakes in the Tibetan Plateau due to climate change are of great interest not only for the importance of water management, but also for the critical challenge due to the lack of observations. In this paper, the water budget of Nam Co Lake during 1980–2010 is simulated using a dynamical monthly water balance model. The simulated lake level is in good agreement with field investigations and the remotely sensed lake level. The long-term hydrological simulation shows that from 1980 to 2010, lake level rose from 4718.34 to 4724.93 m, accompanied by an increase of lake water storage volume from 77.33 × 109 to 83.66 × 109 m3. For the net lake level rise (5.93 m) during the period 1980–2010, the proportional contributions of rainfall–runoff, glacier melt, precipitation on the lake, lake percolation, and evaporation are 104.7%, 56.6%, 41.7%, −22.2%, and −80.9%, respectively. A positive but diminishing annual water surplus is found in Nam Co Lake, implying a continuous but slowing rise in lake level as a hydrological consequence of climate change.

scholarly journals The Driving Forces Underlying Spatiotemporal Lake Extent Changes in the Inner Tibetan Plateau During the Holocene

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangjun Liu ◽  
David Madsen ◽  
Xiaojian Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Water Vapor Transport ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Spatial Differences

The Inner Tibetan Plateau (ITP), the central and western part of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), covers about one-fourth of the entire TP and contains more than 800 endorheic lakes larger than 1 km2. These lakes are important water reservoirs and sensitive to TP climate changes. They regulate regional water circulations, and further influence local ecosystems. Many lakes in ITP are surrounded by conspicuous paleoshorelines indicating much higher past lake levels. Previous studies found that lakes in the western ITP (west of ∼86°E) apparently expanded to higher levels than those to the east during the Holocene high lake level stage, however, there is no in-depth study on the reasons for the spatial differences of high lake levels within the ITP. In this study, we first identify Holocene lake level (or lake extent) changes over the ITP by combining published lake level variation data with our reconstruction of Dagze Co lake level variations. We then investigate spatial differences in the magnitude of lake expansions and explore the underlying forces driving these differences using the transient climate evolution of the last 21 ka (TraCE-21ka) and Kiel Climate Model (KCM) simulation results. We find that lakes in the ITP expanded to their highest levels during the early Holocene when the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) greatly intensified. After the mid-Holocene, lake levels fell as a result of the weakening of the ISM. The early Holocene northward shift of the westerly jet and a positive phase of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) resulted in the intensification of southwesterly winds on the southwest TP flank. Concurrently, westerly winds over the TP weakened, causing a differential increase in water vapor transport to the ITP with higher precipitation levels in the southwestern ITP and lower levels to the northeast. These wind-driven differential precipitation levels caused lakes in the southwestern ITP to expand to higher levels than those in the central, northern and northeastern ITP. During the early Holocene, expansion of lakes in the northwestern ITP was enhanced by an increase in glacier melt water besides the increased summer rainfall associated with the intensified ISM.

scholarly journals High-temporal-resolution water level and storage change data sets for lakes on the Tibetan Plateau during 2000–2017 using multiple altimetric missions and Landsat-derived lake shoreline positions

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1603-1627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingdong Li ◽  
Di Long ◽  
Qi Huang ◽  
Pengfei Han ◽  
Fanyu Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Lake Water ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Altimetry Data ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Storage Change

Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as Asia's water tower, is quite sensitive to climate change, which is reflected by changes in hydrologic state variables such as lake water storage. Given the extremely limited ground observations on the TP due to the harsh environment and complex terrain, we exploited multiple altimetric missions and Landsat satellite data to create high-temporal-resolution lake water level and storage change time series at weekly to monthly timescales for 52 large lakes (50 lakes larger than 150 km2 and 2 lakes larger than 100 km2) on the TP during 2000–2017. The data sets are available online at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.898411 (Li et al., 2019). With Landsat archives and altimetry data, we developed water levels from lake shoreline positions (i.e., Landsat-derived water levels) that cover the study period and serve as an ideal reference for merging multisource lake water levels with systematic biases being removed. To validate the Landsat-derived water levels, field experiments were carried out in two typical lakes, and theoretical uncertainty analysis was performed based on high-resolution optical images (0.8 m) as well. The RMSE of the Landsat-derived water levels is 0.11 m compared with the in situ measurements, consistent with the magnitude from theoretical analysis (0.1–0.2 m). The accuracy of the Landsat-derived water levels that can be derived in relatively small lakes is comparable with most altimetry data. The resulting merged Landsat-derived and altimetric lake water levels can provide accurate information on multiyear and short-term monitoring of lake water levels and storage changes on the TP, and critical information on lake overflow flood monitoring and prediction as the expansion of some TP lakes becomes a serious threat to surrounding residents and infrastructure.

Potential forcing mechanisms of Holocene lake-level changes at Nam Co, Tibetan Plateau: Inferred from the stable isotopic composition of shells of the gastropod Radix

The Holocene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 594-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Chen ◽  
Jin-Liang Feng ◽  
Hai-Ping Hu ◽  
Ji-Feng Zhang ◽  
Shao-Peng Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The South ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Nam Co ◽  
Lake Level Changes ◽  
South Central

The timing of lake-level fluctuations on the Tibetan Plateau and their relationship with climatic changes is still under debate, and the main reason for this is the lack of suitable archives for reconstructing the paleohydrology and paleoclimatology of the lakes. Here, we present the results of analyses of the shell geochemistry of Radix sp. from an exposed terrace of Nam Co lake on the south-central Tibetan Plateau. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating reveals that deep-water lacustrine sediments formed between ca. 4.4 and 2.2 ka, suggesting a high and stable lake level significantly above the present. The results of Sr/Ca, δ13C and δ18O analyses of the fossil shells of Radix sp. indicate that during the mid- to late-Holocene, lake-level variations in Nam Co were mainly controlled by variations in the Indian Summer Monsoon. A trend of decreasing evaporation also played an important role. Comparison with other results suggests a consistent pattern of mid- to late-Holocene lake-level changes across a large area of the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent regions to the south, which had a similar causal mechanism. Finally, our results indicate that fossil shells of the gastropod Radix sp. of the lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are a valuable archive for reconstructing the regional paleohydrology and paleoclimatology.

scholarly journals Densified multi-mission observations by developed optical water levels show marked increases in lake water storage and overflow floods on the Tibetan Plateau

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingdong Li ◽  
Di Long ◽  
Qi Huang ◽  
Pengfei Han ◽  
Fanyu Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Lake Water ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Altimetry Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Lake Water Level ◽  
And Storage

Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) known as Asia's water towers is quite sensitive to climate change, reflected by changes in hydrological state variables such as lake water storage. Given the extremely limited ground observations on the TP due to the harsh environment and complex terrain, we exploited multisource remote sensing, i.e., multiple altimetric missions and Landsat archives to create dense time series (monthly and even higher such as 10 days on average) of lake water level and storage changes across 52 large lakes (> 100 km2) on the TP during 2000–2017 (the data set is available online with a DOI: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.898411). Field experiments were carried out in two typical lakes to validate the remotely sensed results. With Landsat archives and partial altimetry data, we developed optical water levels that cover most of TP lakes and serve as an ideal reference for merging multisource lake water levels. The optical water levels show an uncertainty of ~ 0.1 m that is comparable with most altimetry data and largely reduce the lack of dense altimetric observations with systematic errors well removed for most of lakes. The densified lake water levels provided critical and accurate information on the long-term and short-term monitoring of lake water level and storage changes on the TP. We found that the total storage of the 52 lakes increased by 97.3 km3 at two stages, i.e., 6.68 km3/yr during 2000–2012 and 2.85 km3/yr during 2012–2017. The total overflow from Lake Kusai to Lake Haidingnuoer and Lake Salt during Nov 9–Dec 31 in 2011 was estimated to be 0.22 km3, providing critical information on lake overflow flood monitoring and prediction as the expansion of some TP lakes becomes a serious threat to surrounding residents and infrastructure.

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