IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v11y2021i7d10.1038_s41558-021-01074-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate change decisive for Asia’s snow meltwater supply

Author

Listed:
  • Philip D. A. Kraaijenbrink

    (Utrecht University)

  • Emmy E. Stigter

    (Utrecht University)

  • Tandong Yao

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Walter W. Immerzeel

    (Utrecht University)

Abstract

Streamflow in high-mountain Asia is influenced by meltwater from snow and glaciers, and determining impacts of climate change on the region’s cryosphere is essential to understand future water supply. Past and future changes in seasonal snow are of particular interest, as specifics at the scale of the full region are largely unknown. Here we combine models with observations to show that regional snowmelt is a more important contributor to streamflow than glacier melt, that snowmelt magnitude and timing changed considerably during 1979–2019 and that future snow meltwater supply may decrease drastically. The expected changes are strongly dependent on the degree of climate change, however, and large variations exist among river basins. The projected response of snowmelt to climate change indicates that to sustain the important seasonal buffering role of the snowpacks in high-mountain Asia, it is imperative to limit future climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip D. A. Kraaijenbrink & Emmy E. Stigter & Tandong Yao & Walter W. Immerzeel, 2021. "Climate change decisive for Asia’s snow meltwater supply," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(7), pages 591-597, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01074-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01074-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01074-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-021-01074-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dalei Hao & Gautam Bisht & Hailong Wang & Donghui Xu & Huilin Huang & Yun Qian & L. Ruby Leung, 2023. "A cleaner snow future mitigates Northern Hemisphere snowpack loss from warming," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Tong Cui & Yukun Li & Long Yang & Yi Nan & Kunbiao Li & Mahmut Tudaji & Hongchang Hu & Di Long & Muhammad Shahid & Ammara Mubeen & Zhihua He & Bin Yong & Hui Lu & Chao Li & Guangheng Ni & Chunhong Hu , 2023. "Non-monotonic changes in Asian Water Towers’ streamflow at increasing warming levels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Umirbekov, Atabek & Essery, Richard & Müller, Daniel, 2024. "GEMS v1.0: Generalizable Empirical Model of Snow Accumulation and Melt, based on daily snow mass changes in response to climate and topographic drivers," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(2), pages 911-929.
    4. Tafone, Alessio & Raj Thangavelu, Sundar & Morita, Shigenori & Romagnoli, Alessandro, 2023. "Design optimization of a novel cryo-polygeneration demonstrator developed in Singapore – Techno-economic feasibility study for a cooling dominated tropical climate," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(PB).
    5. Zhili Wang & Yadong Lei & Huizheng Che & Bo Wu & Xiaoye Zhang, 2024. "Aerosol forcing regulating recent decadal change of summer water vapor budget over the Tibetan Plateau," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01074-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.