Abstract
Prevailing lake changes on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) have occurred. Selin Co, a representative saline lake in the central region of the QTP, has had the largest increase and become the largest endorheic lake in Tibet, but the main cause for its dramatic expansion is still under debate. Based on Landsat images, meteorological data and glacier and permafrost data, the dynamic changes in Selin Co and its surrounding small lakes were systematically discussed, and the driving factors behind these changes were further explored. The results suggest that during 1988–2017, the areas of Bange Co and Cuoe Lake showed slow, overall increasing trends at the rates of 0.28 km2/year and 0.11 km2/year, respectively, and upward trends before 2005 but downward trends afterward. The area of Selin Co substantially increased by 685.8 km2 with a growth rate of 30.39 km2/year, with a slow increase of 27.11 km2 during the period of 1988–1997, a rapid increase of 510.53 km2 during 1997–2005 and an increase of 148.16 km2 during 2005–2017. Accordingly, the lake level and water volume of Bange Co slightly increased by 1.64 m and 0.088 km3, respectively, whereas those of Selin Co significantly rose by 8.138 m and 17.47 km3, respectively. The changes in the areas of Bange Co and Cuoe Lake were mostly related to annual precipitation (AP). The expansion of Selin Co may be partly explained as the discharge from the glacier retreat and permafrost degradation in the watershed. Glacial meltwater has enhanced owing to rising, with a rapid reduction of 165.1 km2 (39%) in the glacier area in the basin between 1980 and 2010. Permafrost degradation has significantly accelerated, with increases in the active layer thickness (ALT) (7.44 cm/year) and soil temperatures at a 15-m depth (0.0346 °C/year).
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Qinghai University (Nos. 2020-QGY-10), the Natural Science Foundation of Qinghai Province, China (Nos. 2021-ZJ-940Q), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 42161068) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos. XDA23060703). The authors’ contributions are: conceptualization and writing (original draft): Wenhui Liu and Hairui Liu; permafrost data curation: Guangyue Liu and Wu Wang; methodology and software: Qinhao Zhao and Qi Zhang; supervision and grammar editing: Changwei Xie. The authors thank all the staff of the Cryosphere Research Station on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, Chinese Academy of Sciences for their hard work in obtaining field permafrost data and offer special thanks to Guangyue Liu for providing the photo of the thermokarst lake.
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Liu, W., Liu, H., Xie, C. et al. Dynamic changes in lakes and potential drivers within the Selin Co basin, Tibetan Plateau. Environ Earth Sci 81, 84 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-10155-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-10155-1