Rapid shrinking of glaciers in the Middle Qilian Mountain region of Northwest China during the last ∼50 years

Abstract

During the past five decades, fluctuations of glaciers were reconstructed from historical documents, aerial photographs, and remote sensing data. From 1956 to 2003, 910 glaciers investigated had reduced in area by 21.7% of the 1956 value, with a mean reduction for the individual glacier of 0.10 km². The relative area reductions of small glaciers were usually higher than those of large ones, which exhibited larger absolute loss, indicating that the small glaciers were more sensitive to climate change than large ones. Over the past ∼50 years, glacier area decreased by 29.6% in the Heihe (黑河) River basin and 18.7% in the Beidahe (北大河) River basin, which were the two regions investigated in the Middle Qilian (祁连) Mountain region. Compared with other areas of the Qilian Mountain region, the most dramatic glacier shrinkage had occurred in the Middle Qilian Mountain region, mainly resulting from rapid rising temperatures. Regional differences in glacier area changes are related to local climate conditions, the relative proportion of glaciers in different size classes, and other factors.

Keywords

glacier change / regional difference / remote sensing / Middle Qilian Mountain region

References

[1] Academia Sinica Report of the Investigation of Modern Glaciers in the Qilian Mts., Investigation Team of Ice/Snow Utilization (Special Issue I), 1959, Beijing: Science Press

[2] Ageta Y., Kadota T.. Predictions of Changes of Glacier Mass Balance in the Nepal Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau: A Case Study of Air Temperature Increase for Three Glaciers. Annals of Glaciology, 1992, 16: 89-94.

[3] Chen Y., Zhang D. Q., Sun Y. B., . Water Demand Management: A Case Study of the Heihe River Basin in China. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 2005, 30(6–7): 408-419.

[4] Cia J. C., Andres A. J., Sanchez M. A., . Responses to Climatic Changes since the Little Ice Age on Maladeta Glacier (Central Pyrenees). Geomorphology, 2005, 68(3–4): 167-182.

[5] Dikich A. N., Hagg W.. Climate Driven Changes of Glacier Runoff in the Issyk-Kul Basin, Kyrgystan. Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie, 2004, 39: 75-86.

[6] Evans I. S.. Local Aspect Asymmetry of Mountain Glaciation: A Global Survey of Consistency of Favoured Directions for Glacier Numbers and Altitudes. Geomorphology, 2006, 73(1–2): 166-184.

[7] Evans I. S., Cox N. J.. Climatogenic North-South Asymmetry of Local Glaciers in Spitsbergen and Other Parts of the Arctic. Annals of Glaciology, 2010, 51(55): 16-22.

[8] Fujita K., Ageta Y., Pu J. C., . Mass Balance of Xiao Dongkemadi Glacier on the Central Tibetan Plateau from 1989 to 1995. Annals of Glaciology, 2000, 31: 159-163.

[9] Fujita K., Ageta Y.. Effect of Summer Accumulation on Glacier Mass Balance on the Tibetan Palteau Revealed by Mass-Balance Model. Jounal of Glaciology, 2000, 46: 244-252.

[10] Gao Q. Z., Li F. X.. Case Study of Rational Development and Utilization of Water Resources in the Heihe River Basin, 1991, Lanzhou: Gansu Science and Technology Press 1 228

[11] Hagg W., Braun L.. de Jong C., Collins D., Ranzi R.. The Influence of Glacier Retreat on Water Yield from High Mountain Areas: Comparison of Alps and Central Asian. Climate and Hydrology in Mountain Areas, 2005, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 263 275

[12] Hodgkins R., Fox A., Nuttall A. M.. Geometry Change between 1990 and 2003 at Finsterwalderbreen, a Svalbard Surge-Type Glacier, from GPS Profiling. Annals of Glaciology, 2007, 46: 131-135.

[13] Jia W. X., He Y. Q., Li Z. X., . The Regional Difference and Catastrophe of Climatic Change in Qilian Mt. Region. Acta Geographica Sinica, 2008, 63(3): 257-269.

[14] Jin R., Li X., Che T., . Glacier Area Changes in the Pumqu River Basin, Tibetan Plateau, between the 1970s and 2001. Journal of Glaciology, 2005, 51(175): 607-610.

[15] Jóhannesson T., Raymond C., Waddington E.. Time-Scale for Adjustment of Glaciers to Changes in Mass Balance. Journal of Glaciology, 1989, 35(121): 355-369.

[16] Kääb A.. Mountain Glaciers and Permafrost Creep. Methodical Research Perspectives from Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Technologies: [Dessertation], 2004, Zurich: University of Zurich 205

[17] Knight P. G.. Glaciers, 1998, Cheletenham: Stanley Thornes Ltd.

[18] Lan Y. C., Ding Y. J., Kang E. S.. Variations and Trends of Temperature and Precipitation in the Mountain Drainage Basin of the Heihe River in Recent 50 Years. Plateau Meteorology, 2004, 23(5): 723-727.

[19] Lan Y. C., Ding Y. J., Liu J. Q., . Change of Water Resources in Mountainous Area of Heihe River under Global-Warming Scene. Journal of Desert Research, 2005, 25(6): 863-868.

[20] Li B. L., Zhu A. X., Zhang Y. C., . Glacier Change over the Past Four Decades in the Middle Chinese Tien Shan. Journal of Glaciology, 2006, 52(178): 425-432.

[21] Li D. L., Wei L., Cai Y., . The Present Facts and the Future Tendency of the Climate Change in Northwest China. Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, 2003, 25(2): 135-142.

[22] Li Z. Q., Li K. M., Wang L.. Study on Recent Glacier Changes and Their Impact on Water Resources in Xinjiang, North Western China. Quaternary Sciences, 2010, 30(1): 96-106.

[23] Li Z. X., He Y. Q., Pu T., . Changes of Climate, Glaciers and Runoff in China’s Monsoonal Temperate Glacier Region during the Last Several Decades. Quaternary International, 2010, 218(1-2): 13-28.

[24] Liu C. H., Song Y. P., Jin M. X.. Recent Change and Trend Prediction of Glaciers in Qilian Mountain. Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology Memoirs 7, 1992, Lanzhou: Academia Sinica 1 9

[25] Liu S. Y., Sun W. X., Shen Y. P., . Glacier Changes since the Little Ice Age Maximum in the Western Qilian Shan, Northwest China, and Consequences of Glacier Runoff for Water Supply. Journal of Glaciology, 2003, 49(164): 117-124.

[26] Nesje A., Dahl S. O.. Glaciers and Environmental Change, 2000, New York: Oxford University Press

[27] Oerlemans J.. Quantifying Global Warming from the Retreat of Glaciers. Science, 1994, 264(5156): 243-245.

[28] Oerlemans J.. Extracting a Climate Signal from 169 Glacier Records. Science, 2005, 308(5722): 675-677.

[29] Paul F., Kääb A., Maisch M., . The New Remote-Sensing-Derived Swiss Glacier Inventory: I. Methods. Annals of Glaciology, 2002, 34: 355-361.

[30] Paul F., Kääb A., Maisch M., . Rapid Disintegration of Alpine Glaciers Observed with Satellite Data. Geophysical Research Letters, 2004, 31 21 L21402

[31] Pu J. C., Yao T. D., Duan K. Q., . Mass Balance of the Qiyi Glacier in the Qilian Mountains: A New Observation. Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, 2005, 27(2): 199-204.

[32] Raup B., Racoviteanu A., Jodha S., . The GLIMS Geospatial Glacier Database: A New Tool for Studying Glacier Change. Global and Planetary Change, 2007, 56(1–2): 101-110.

[33] Raup B., Kääb A., Kargel J. S., . Remote Sensing and GIS Technology in the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Project. Computers & Geosciences, 2007, 33(1): 104-125.

[34] Sakai A., Fujita K., Duan K., . Five Decades of Shrinkage of the July 1st Glacier, Qilian Mountains, China. Journal of Glaciology, 2006, 52(176): 11-16.

[35] Shangguan D. H., Liu S. Y., Ding Y. J., . Glacier Changes in the West Kunlun Shan from 1970 to 2001 Derived from Landsat TM/ETM Plus and Chinese Glacier Inventory Data. Annals of Glaciology, 2007, 46: 204-208.

[36] Shangguan D. H., Liu S. Y., Ding Y. J., . Glacier Changes during the Last Forty Years in the Tarim Interior River Basin, Northwest China. Progress in Natural Science, 2009, 19(6): 727-732.

[37] Shen Y. P., Liu S. Y., Wang L. L., . Fluctuations of Glacier Mass Balance in Watersheds of Qilian Mountains and Their Impact on Water Resources of Hexi Region. Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, 2001, 23(3): 244-250.

[38] Shi Y. F.. Glaciers and Their Environments in China—The Present, Past and Future, 2000, Beijing: Science Press

[39] Shi Y. F.. Estimation of the Water Resources Affected by Climatic Warming and Glacier Shrinkage before 2050 in West China. Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, 2001, 23(4): 333-341.

[40] Surazakov A. B., Aizen V. B., Aizen E. M., . Glacier Changes in the Siberian Altai Mountains, Ob River Basin, (1952–2006) Estimated with High Resolution Imagery. Environmental Research Letters, 2007, 2 4 045017

[41] Toutin T.. DEM from Stereo Landsat 7 ETM+ Data over High Relief Areas. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2002, 23(10): 2133-2139.

[42] Wang Z. T., Liu C. H., You G. X., . Glacier Inventory of China I (Qilian Mountains), 1981, Lanzhou: Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Cryopedology, Academia Sinica

[43] Xie Z. C., Wu G. H., Wang L. L.. Recent Fluctuations of Glaciers in the Qilian Mountains. Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology Memoirs 5, 1985, Lanzhou: Academia Sinica 82 90

[44] Yang J. P., Ding Y. J., Chen R. S., . Causes of Glacier Change in the Source Regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers on the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Glaciology, 2003, 49(167): 539-546.

[45] Yang Z. N.. Glacier Water Resources in China, 1991, Lanzhou: Gansu Science and Technology Press 81 150

[46] Yao T. D., Wang Y. Q., Liu S. Y., . Recent Glacial Retreat in High Asia in China and Its Impact on Water Resources in Northwest China. Science in China (Series D), 2004, 47(12): 1065-1075.

[47] Ye Q. H., Kang S. C., Chen F., . Monitoring Glacier Variations on Geladandong Mountain, Central Tibetan Plateau, from 1969 to 2002 Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technologies. Journal of Glaciology, 2006, 52(179): 537-545.

[48] Zhao L. Q.. A Study of Glacier Changes and Surface Dust on Lenglongling Glaciers in the Qilian Mountains: [Dissertation], 2009, Lanzhou: Lanzhou University 1 57