Abstract
Despite projections of extreme reduction in glacier volume in the Qilian Mountains by the end of the century, comprehensive studies of regional glacier-wide mass and energy balance characteristics remain lacking. This study undertook a comparative analysis of the surface energy and mass balance characteristics of Laohugou glacier No. 12 (LHG glacier) in the Shule River Basin (western Qilian Mountains) and Bailanghe glacier No. 21 (BLH glacier) in the Heihe River Basin (middle Qilian Mountains) based on in situ measurements from September 2020 to August 2021. During the cold season (September–April), precipitation was greater on the BLH glacier than on the LHG glacier. This resulted in a more positive mass balance on the BLH glacier during the cold season, and less melting in May–June owing to the higher incoming shortwave radiation. During the ablation season (May–August), snowfall was greater on the LHG glacier owing to its higher elevation, while melting was also greater owing to the anomalously low cloud fraction during summer 2021. The annual mass balance was notably more negative on the LHG glacier than on the BLH glacier at the same elevation below 5000 m, whereas the annual glacier-wide mass balance was just slightly more negative on the LHG glacier than on the BLH glacier because most of the area in the LHG glacier is at higher elevation. The equilibrium line altitude varied between 4900 and 5100 on the glaciers of Qilian Mountains during recent two decades, which signified that only 5.8–25.5% of the total glacier area is within the accumulation zone in the Heihe River Basin; thus, further global warming will place the regional glaciers in a very vulnerable position.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available via linking to www.ncdc.ac/portal/ or chenjizu@lzb.ac.cn.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A20564, 41971073, 42101139), the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science (SKLCS-ZZ-2022), and national key research and development project (2022YFF0711704). We thank James Buxton MSc, from Liwen Bianji (Edanz) (www.liwenbianji.cn/), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by XQ, WS and YL. Conceptualization and review were performed by WD and SK. Data analysis and software were performed by LL and JH. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JC and WD. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Chen, J., Du, W., Kang, S. et al. Comparison of energy and mass balance characteristics between two glaciers in adjacent basins in the Qilian Mountains. Clim Dyn 61, 1535–1550 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06641-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06641-2