Analysis on Variation of Lakes and Its Influencing Drivers for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a highly vulnerable region to the impacts of climate change.In this study,the spatio-temporal variations in lake area in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the 1970s to 2021 were examined,using data from the lakes larger than 1 km2 in Tibetan Plateau dataset.The results show that the area and number of lakes in the region have undergone significant changes,with most of the lakes exhibiting a shrinking trend before 1995,followed by a period of growth thereafter.The number of lakes has increased at a rate of 16.5 lakes per year,with an associated increase in area of 472 km2 per year,reaching a peak in 2019.Notably,the number of lakes with the area of(1,100]km2 has increased the fastest,accounting for 77.2％of the total increase in lake numbers.We also examined the drivers of lake area change in the region.These findings re-veal that the correlation between lake area and temperature(R=0.821 3)is stronger than that with precipitation(R=0.584 7).Fur-ther analysis shows that this correlation is higher in Tibet(R=0.807 2)than in Qinghai Province(R=0.679 1),possibly due to the relatively larger area of glaciers and permafrost in the Qinghai-Tibet region.These findings have implications for the understand-ing of the impacts of climate change on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the future management of water resources.
万方数据
维普
