Limited Contribution of Glacier Mass Loss to the Recent Increase in Tibetan Plateau Lake Volume

Fanny Brun; Désirée Treichler; David Shean; Walter W. Immerzeel

doi:10.3389/feart.2020.582060

Limited Contribution of Glacier Mass Loss to the Recent Increase in Tibetan Plateau Lake Volume

Fanny Brun^*
, Désirée Treichler
, David Shean
, Walter W. Immerzeel

^*Corresponding author for this work

Landscape functioning, Geocomputation and Hydrology

Utrecht University
Université Grenoble Alpes
University of Oslo
University of Washington

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The Tibetan plateau plays an essential role in the water supply to Asia’s large river systems and, as the largest and highest mountain plateau in the world, it drives the Asian monsoon and influences global atmospheric circulation patterns. The increase in the Tibetan plateau lake volume since the mid-1990s is well documented, however the drivers of lake growth remain largely unexplained. In this study we investigate changes in lake and glacier volumes, together with changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration at basin scale. We calculate the contribution of glacier mass loss to the lake volume increase for the period 1994–2015. We demonstrate that glacier mass loss does have a limited contribution to the lake volume increase (19 (Formula presented.) 21% for the whole Tibetan plateau). Glacier mass loss is thus insufficient to explain all of the lake volume gain, and despite large spread in various products that estimate precipitation and evaporation, we suggest that an increase in precipitation excess (precipitation - evapotranspiration) may be sufficient to explain the lake volume gain.

Original language	English
Article number	582060
Journal	Frontiers in Earth Science
Volume	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.582060
Publication status	Published - 16 Nov 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20100300), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 676819) and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (grant no. 016.181.308 and ALWOP.467). DS was supported by NASA award NNX16AQ88G. DT acknowledges funding from the FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (grant no. ICEMASS (320816)).

Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright ©2020 Brun, Treichler, Shean and Immerzeel.

Funding

This project has received funding from the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20100300), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 676819) and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (grant no. 016.181.308 and ALWOP.467). DS was supported by NASA award NNX16AQ88G. DT acknowledges funding from the FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (grant no. ICEMASS (320816)).

Keywords

glaciers
High mountain Asia
lakes
precipitation
reanalysis
tibetan plateau

Access to Document

10.3389/feart.2020.582060Licence: CC BY

feart-08-582060Final published version, 4.15 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{70075a027f9240e0a147f4f1b7342a75,

title = "Limited Contribution of Glacier Mass Loss to the Recent Increase in Tibetan Plateau Lake Volume",

abstract = "The Tibetan plateau plays an essential role in the water supply to Asia{\textquoteright}s large river systems and, as the largest and highest mountain plateau in the world, it drives the Asian monsoon and influences global atmospheric circulation patterns. The increase in the Tibetan plateau lake volume since the mid-1990s is well documented, however the drivers of lake growth remain largely unexplained. In this study we investigate changes in lake and glacier volumes, together with changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration at basin scale. We calculate the contribution of glacier mass loss to the lake volume increase for the period 1994–2015. We demonstrate that glacier mass loss does have a limited contribution to the lake volume increase (19 (Formula presented.) 21\% for the whole Tibetan plateau). Glacier mass loss is thus insufficient to explain all of the lake volume gain, and despite large spread in various products that estimate precipitation and evaporation, we suggest that an increase in precipitation excess (precipitation - evapotranspiration) may be sufficient to explain the lake volume gain.",

keywords = "glaciers, High mountain Asia, lakes, precipitation, reanalysis, tibetan plateau",

author = "Fanny Brun and D{\'e}sir{\'e}e Treichler and David Shean and Immerzeel, \{Walter W.\}",

note = "Funding Information: This project has received funding from the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20100300), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 676819) and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (grant no. 016.181.308 and ALWOP.467). DS was supported by NASA award NNX16AQ88G. DT acknowledges funding from the FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (grant no. ICEMASS (320816)). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Copyright {\textcopyright}2020 Brun, Treichler, Shean and Immerzeel.",

year = "2020",

month = nov,

day = "16",

doi = "10.3389/feart.2020.582060",

language = "English",

volume = "8",

journal = "Frontiers in Earth Science",

issn = "2296-6463",

publisher = "Frontiers Media SA",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Limited Contribution of Glacier Mass Loss to the Recent Increase in Tibetan Plateau Lake Volume

AU - Brun, Fanny

AU - Treichler, Désirée

AU - Shean, David

AU - Immerzeel, Walter W.

N1 - Funding Information: This project has received funding from the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20100300), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 676819) and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (grant no. 016.181.308 and ALWOP.467). DS was supported by NASA award NNX16AQ88G. DT acknowledges funding from the FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (grant no. ICEMASS (320816)). Publisher Copyright: © Copyright ©2020 Brun, Treichler, Shean and Immerzeel.

PY - 2020/11/16

Y1 - 2020/11/16

N2 - The Tibetan plateau plays an essential role in the water supply to Asia’s large river systems and, as the largest and highest mountain plateau in the world, it drives the Asian monsoon and influences global atmospheric circulation patterns. The increase in the Tibetan plateau lake volume since the mid-1990s is well documented, however the drivers of lake growth remain largely unexplained. In this study we investigate changes in lake and glacier volumes, together with changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration at basin scale. We calculate the contribution of glacier mass loss to the lake volume increase for the period 1994–2015. We demonstrate that glacier mass loss does have a limited contribution to the lake volume increase (19 (Formula presented.) 21% for the whole Tibetan plateau). Glacier mass loss is thus insufficient to explain all of the lake volume gain, and despite large spread in various products that estimate precipitation and evaporation, we suggest that an increase in precipitation excess (precipitation - evapotranspiration) may be sufficient to explain the lake volume gain.

AB - The Tibetan plateau plays an essential role in the water supply to Asia’s large river systems and, as the largest and highest mountain plateau in the world, it drives the Asian monsoon and influences global atmospheric circulation patterns. The increase in the Tibetan plateau lake volume since the mid-1990s is well documented, however the drivers of lake growth remain largely unexplained. In this study we investigate changes in lake and glacier volumes, together with changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration at basin scale. We calculate the contribution of glacier mass loss to the lake volume increase for the period 1994–2015. We demonstrate that glacier mass loss does have a limited contribution to the lake volume increase (19 (Formula presented.) 21% for the whole Tibetan plateau). Glacier mass loss is thus insufficient to explain all of the lake volume gain, and despite large spread in various products that estimate precipitation and evaporation, we suggest that an increase in precipitation excess (precipitation - evapotranspiration) may be sufficient to explain the lake volume gain.

KW - glaciers

KW - High mountain Asia

KW - lakes

KW - precipitation

KW - reanalysis

KW - tibetan plateau

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85097110964

U2 - 10.3389/feart.2020.582060

DO - 10.3389/feart.2020.582060

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85097110964

SN - 2296-6463

VL - 8

JO - Frontiers in Earth Science

JF - Frontiers in Earth Science

M1 - 582060

ER -

Limited Contribution of Glacier Mass Loss to the Recent Increase in Tibetan Plateau Lake Volume

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this