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Glacier Change and Its Response to Climate Change in Western China

Author

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  • Jiahui Li

    (State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Xinliang Xu

    (State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China)

Abstract

Given that glaciers are good indicators of climate change, it is of great scientific significance to study glacier change for regional environmental protection and water resource development and utilization. Using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, we obtained the distribution of glaciers in western China in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. Then, we analyzed the temporal and spatial evolutions of the glacier areas and their responses to climate change. The results showed that there were 52,384 glaciers in western China in 2020, with an area of 42,903.57 km 2 , among which those belonging to the headwater of the Tarim River are the largest, accounting for 35.25% of the total area. From 2000 to 2020, the glaciers indicated an overall trend of retreat, with the total area decreasing by 15,575.94 km 2 at a change rate of 1.46%/a. From 2000 to 2010, glaciers in the southeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and Qilian Mountains saw the fastest area loss (>4%/a), followed by the Tianshan Mountains (3.31%/a), while those in the Pamir-Karakoram-West Kunlun regions and the Qiangtang Plateau had the slowest loss. From 2010 to 2020, the glacier retreat rate exhibited an accelerating trend in southeast QTP and the western Himalayas, while it slowed down in the Tianshan Mountains. The change in glaciers was greatly attributed to the combination of snowfall and summer temperature trends. The glaciers in southeast QTP showed an accelerated retreat tendency, probably due to the accelerating snowfall decrease and continuous temperature rise. The decreasing temperature mitigated the loss of glacier area in the Pamir-Karakoram-West Kunlun regions with continuously decreasing snowfall.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiahui Li & Xinliang Xu, 2023. "Glacier Change and Its Response to Climate Change in Western China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:623-:d:1088759
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Matthias Huss & Regine Hock, 2018. "Global-scale hydrological response to future glacier mass loss," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(2), pages 135-140, February.
    3. P. D. A. Kraaijenbrink & M. F. P. Bierkens & A. F. Lutz & W. W. Immerzeel, 2017. "Impact of a global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius on Asia’s glaciers," Nature, Nature, vol. 549(7671), pages 257-260, September.
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    1. Haoyue Gao & Tianling Qin & Qinghua Luan & Jianming Feng & Xiuyan Zhang & Yuhui Yang & Shu Xu & Jie Lu, 2024. "Characteristics Analysis and Prediction of Land Use Evolution in the Source Region of the Yangtze River and Yellow River Based on Improved FLUS Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, March.

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