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Controls on daily to interannual variations of summer precipitation isotopic signatures from Qinghai Lake watershed, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

Numerous crucial paleoclimate records in monsoon regions depend on past precipitation isotopes as proxies for hydroclimate; however, the relationship between climatic variability and precipitation isotopes remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated key climatic drivers from local to regional scales using 7-year-long daily summer precipitation isotopes in the Qinghai Lake watershed of the northeast Tibetan Plateau, located in the margin of summer monsoon extent. Results showed that daily precipitation δ18O and δ2H exhibited intra-seasonal fluctuation from 2012 to 2018 characterized by low isotopic values in July (e.g., δ18O =  − 10‰) and high values in June (e.g., δ18O =  − 6.7‰). Moisture source analysis via Hybrid Sing-Particle Lagrangian Trajectory indicated that the primary moisture of Qinghai Lake was mainly derived from northwestern inland regions, North China, and South China across seasons with high specific humidity and trajectory frequency, having a great influence on the isotopic patterns in precipitation across seasons. Moreover, convective activities in the primary moisture source regions, shown by outgoing longwave radiation and specific humidity along back trajectory, played a crucial role in controlling the seasonal variability of precipitation isotopes. These effects could be closely associated with the upstream convective intensity over the moisture sources or the changes of moisture sources during the observation periods. Interannual precipitation δ18O variation was significantly correlated with the indices of the El Niňo Southern Oscillation (r = 0.63, p < 0.1), with high precipitation δ18O value in the dry El Niňo year of 2015. Our findings suggested that precipitation isotopes in the Qinghai Lake watershed represented a spatial–temporal integrative indicator of precipitating processes and convection activity, providing the interpretation of paleo-isotope data in the regional hydroclimate variability across monsoon-affected regions.

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Data will be made available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for the reviewers and the editor for constructive recommendations and advices.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41961017, 41971029, and 41861022), Western Youngest Scientists supported by CAS (2021_1_1), State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University (2019-KF-003) and Science and Technology Project of Qinghai Province [2023-ZJ-755].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geographic Information and Tourism College, Chuzhou University, Chuzhou, China

    Jing Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, China

    Lihui Tian

  3. College of Geographic Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China

    Xiong Xiao & Cicheng Zhang

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  1. Jing Li
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  2. Lihui Tian
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  3. Xiong Xiao
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  4. Cicheng Zhang
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Contributions

Jing Li: conceptualization, methodology, software, and writing the original draft. Lihui Tian: review and editing, supervision, and visualization. Xiong Xiao: water sampling and data analysis. Cicheng Zhang: review and editing, data analysis, and Visualization.

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Correspondence to Lihui Tian or Cicheng Zhang.

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Li, J., Tian, L., Xiao, X. et al. Controls on daily to interannual variations of summer precipitation isotopic signatures from Qinghai Lake watershed, northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Theor Appl Climatol 152, 1019–1029 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-023-04390-8

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