EGU2020-6832
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6832
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The role of lakes in water cycling on the Tibetan Plateau under warming climate

Liping Zhu1,2,3, Baojin Qiao4, Ruimin Yang5, Chong Liu1,3, Junbo Wang1,2, and Jianting Ju1
Liping Zhu et al.
  • 1Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (lpzhu@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 2CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, China
  • 3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  • 4Institute of Smart City, Zhengzhou University, China
  • 5College of Earth Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, China

The Tibetan Plateau is one of the most important high elevation areas on the earth, performing sensitive response to global changes. As the Asia water tower, high mountain melting water is important water supplies for human development in TP and surrounded areas, but water phase transition is less known, especially under the climatic warming. Lakes are links of water phase transition and water cycle in TP. Lake water storage variations are sensitive to precipitation differentiations in the domination of the Westerlies and Indian monsoon. However, lake water storage performs inconsistent response in different regions & time periods. Based upon water balance observation, lake water storage variations are influenced by different factors, which also changed during different time period. Lake water temperature and thermoclines vary with seasons, and change water temperature gradient which influence water-air heat exchange. Lake salinities generally decreased since 1970s in the Serling Co region due to increasing of water storage. Based upon more than 60 lakes monitoring correction, it is found that lake transparency generally increased during 2000-2017 inferred by remote sensing interpretation. To aim at the deep recognizing of interactions between lake water variations and climatic changes, we need to know lake water storages and their variations for whole region and consecutive time series. To understand how heat exchanges between changing lakes and atmosphere, we need more consecutive observation data from large lakes. Therefore, the proposed work is to finish more lake survey and water balance monitoring, and continue to improve water cycling studies in the large lake basin scale for deep understanding how water cycles accompanied with mass and nutrients under the warming climatic conditions.

How to cite: Zhu, L., Qiao, B., Yang, R., Liu, C., Wang, J., and Ju, J.: The role of lakes in water cycling on the Tibetan Plateau under warming climate, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-6832, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6832, 2020