Contribution of supra-permafrost discharge to thermokarst lake water balances on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Pan, X., Yu, Q., You, Y., Chun, K. P., Shi, X. and Li, Y. (2017) Contribution of supra-permafrost discharge to thermokarst lake water balances on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Journal of Hydrology, 555, pp. 621-630. (doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.10.046)

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Abstract

The seasonal hydrological mechanisms of two thermokarst lakes on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) were characterized by three-year intensive field observations and a water balance model. In three ice-free seasons, the supra-permafrost discharge contributed a mean ratio of over 170% of the precipitation. In the ice-cover seasons, the supra-permafrost discharge contribution varied between −20% and 22% of the water storage change. Results show that a large portion of the lake water storage change is because of the supra-permafrost discharge resulting from precipitation. Furthermore, a precipitation-subsurface runoff function is preliminarily identified in which the supra-permafrost discharge nonlinearly increased with more precipitation. Our results show that the recent lake expansion is linked with increasing supra-permafrost discharge dominated by precipitation. This study also suggests that we need to pay attention to the nonlinear increase of precipitation-controlled supra-permafrost discharge on the large lake expansion at the catchment scale in the QTP region, instead of only looking at the inputs (e.g., precipitation and river discharge) as shown in the previous studies.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Shi, Dr John Xiaogang
Authors: Pan, X., Yu, Q., You, Y., Chun, K. P., Shi, X., and Li, Y.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social & Environmental Sustainability
Journal Name:Journal of Hydrology
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0022-1694
ISSN (Online):1879-2707
Published Online:31 October 2017
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
First Published:First published in Journal of Hydrology 555:621-630
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

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