Abstract
Lakes are sensitive to environmental changes, and an example of this change is the decreased water level in the Yamzho Yumco Lake (YYL, in southern Tibetan Plateau), which is opposite of the reported expansion in most other lakes of the Tibetan Plateau. In this study, we report a high-resolution dataset of daily monitored water levels from 1974 to 2010 in the YYL, which was used to elucidate annual and seasonal variations of the lake water level. These data are coupled to the stable isotope signals in the lake water and to a water balance model to provide an overall picture of factors and processes affecting the lake. The data revealed an annual average rate of 0.12 m per year lowering of the lake water level, but there was a relative increase in the summer and autumn seasons. It was found that a large amount of precipitation and low evaporation were primary reasons for increasing periods of the lake water level. The extensive glacier melting process driven by a sharp rise in temperature is another key factor for the increasing period between 1997 and 2004. The annual general water level decline before 1996 is attributed to the slow glacier melting rate and reduced precipitation, while a drastic decline of the water level after 2005 could be related to water leakage at the lake bottom, enhanced by a thawing of the permafrost. This process is driven by increasing soil temperatures and human activity. Finding out the causes of the YYL shrinkage trend provides vital implications for the management of water resources in the Tibetan plateau cold regions.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request (such as the monitored lake water levels and the meteorological datasets).
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0402710); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51539003 and 41761134090); the National Science Funds for Creative Research Groups of China (Grant No. 51421006); the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. KYZZ16_0277); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. 2016B04214 and 2017B10314), and the Belt and Road Special Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering (Grant No. 2019491111). We thank the editor, associate editor, and anonymous reviewers, whose suggestions and comments were very helpful in improving this manuscript.
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Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 5 • May 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Nov 22, 2019
Accepted: Oct 22, 2020
Published online: Mar 9, 2021
Published in print: May 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Aug 9, 2021
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