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Contributions of moisture sources to precipitation in the major drainage basins in the Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

Tracking and quantifying the moisture sources of precipitation in different drainage basins in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) help to reveal basin-scale hydrological cycle characteristics under the interactions between the westerlies and Indian summer monsoon (ISM) systems and to improve our understanding on the mechanisms of water resource changes in the ‘Asian Water Tower’ under climate changes. Based on a Eulerian moisture tracking model (WAM-2) and three atmospheric reanalysis products (ERA-I, MERRA-2, and JRA-55), the contributions of moisture sources to the precipitation in six major sub-basins in the TP were tracked during an approximately 35-year period (1979/1980–2015). The results showed that in the upper Indus (UI), upper Tarim River (UT), and Qaidam Basin (QB), the moisture sources mainly extended westward along the mid-latitude westerlies to the western part of the Eurasian continent. In contrast, in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin (YB), inner TP (ITP), and the source area of three eastern rivers (TER, including the Nujiang River, Lancang River, and Yangtze River), the moisture sources extended both westward and southward, but mainly southward along the ISM. In winter and spring, all of the sub-basins were dominated by western moisture sources. In summer, the western sources migrated northward with the zonal movement of the westerlies, and simultaneously the southern sources of the YB, ITP, and TER expanded largely toward the Indian Ocean along the ISM. In autumn, the moisture sources of the UI, UT, and QB shrank to the western sources, and the moisture sources of the YB, ITP, and TER shrank to the central-southern TP and the Indian subcontinent. By quantifying the moisture contributions from multiple sources, we found that the terrestrial moisture dominated in all of the sub-basins, particularly in the UT and QB (62–73%). The oceanic contributions were relatively high in the UI (38–42%) and YB (38–41%). In winter, evaporation from the large western water bodies (such as the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf) was significantly higher than that from the continental areas. This contributed to the peak (valley) values of the oceanic (terrestrial) moisture contributions to all of the sub-basins. In summer, the terrestrial moisture contributions to the UI, UT, and QB reached their annual maximum, but the abundant oceanic moisture transported by the ISM restrained the appearance of land source contribution peaks in the YB, ITP, and TER, resulting in almost equal moisture contributions in the YB from the ocean and land.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (Grant Nos. 2019QZKK0201 & 2019QZKK020705), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41988101 & 41871057), and the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20060202).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Eco-environment in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Yichang, 443002, China

    Ying Li, Hui Peng & Shangbin Xiao

  2. College of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, 443002, China

    Ying Li, Hui Peng & Shangbin Xiao

  3. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100101, China

    Ying Li & Fengge Su

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Ying Li, Fengge Su & Qiuhong Tang

  5. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Fengge Su

  6. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Process, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Qiuhong Tang

  7. Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science (Ministry of Education of China), East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Hongkai Gao

  8. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, Water Resources Department, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100038, China

    Denghua Yan

Authors
  1. Ying Li
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  2. Fengge Su
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  3. Qiuhong Tang
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  4. Hongkai Gao
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  5. Denghua Yan
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  6. Hui Peng
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  7. Shangbin Xiao
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Correspondence to Fengge Su.

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Li, Y., Su, F., Tang, Q. et al. Contributions of moisture sources to precipitation in the major drainage basins in the Tibetan Plateau. Sci. China Earth Sci. 65, 1088–1103 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9890-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9890-6

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