Frozen soil degradation and its effects on surface hydrology in the northern Tibetan Plateau

Frozen soil was simulated at six seasonally frozen and seven permafrost stations over the northern Tibetan Plateau using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model for the period of 1962–2009. The VIC model resolved the seasonal cycle and temporal evolution of the observed soil temperatures and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres Vol. 120; no. 16; pp. 8276 - 8298
Main Authors: Cuo, Lan, Zhang, Yongxin, Bohn, Theodore J., Zhao, Lin, Li, Jialuo, Liu, Qiming, Zhou, Bingrong
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Washington Blackwell Publishing Ltd 27.08.2015
Subjects:
Air temperature
Base flow
climate change
Conduction heating
Conductive heat transfer
Daily temperatures
Degradation
Environmental degradation
Evapotranspiration
Frozen ground
frozen soil degradation
Frozen soils
Geophysics
Heat conduction
Hydrologic processes
hydrological modeling
Hydrology
Ice
Ice melting
Infiltration capacity
Liquids
Long-term changes
Moisture content
Permafrost
Plateaus
Precipitation
Precipitation effects
Seasonal variation
Soil
Soil (material)
Soil degradation
Soil layers
Soil moisture
Soil temperature
Soil temperature effects
Stations
surface hydrology
Temperature effects
the Tibetan Plateau
Trends
Tibetan Plateau
China, People's Rep., Xizang, Tibetan Plateau
ISSN:2169-897X, 2169-8996
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Frozen soil was simulated at six seasonally frozen and seven permafrost stations over the northern Tibetan Plateau using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model for the period of 1962–2009. The VIC model resolved the seasonal cycle and temporal evolution of the observed soil temperatures and liquid soil moisture well. The simulated long‐term changes during 1962–2009 indicated mostly positive trends for both soil temperature and soil moisture, and negative trends for soil ice content at annual and monthly time scales, although differences existed among the stations, soil layers, and seasons. Increases in soil temperature were due mainly to increases in daily air temperature maxima and internal soil heat conduction, while decreases in soil ice content were related to the warming of frozen soil. For liquid soil moisture, increases in the cold months can be attributed to increases in soil temperature and enhanced soil ice melt while changes in the warm months were the results of competition between positive precipitation and negative soil temperature effects. Precipitation and liquid soil moisture were strongly correlated with evapotranspiration and runoff but had various degrees of correlations with base flow during May–September. Seasonally frozen stations displayed longer and more active hydrological processes than permafrost stations. Slight enhancement of the surface hydrological processes at the study stations was indicated, due to the combined effects of precipitation changes, which were dominant, and frozen soil degradation. Key Points Frozen soil is warming in the northern Tibetan Plateau Surface hydrology enhancement is dominated by precipitation change Frozen soil degradation plays secondary role in surface hydrology enhancement
Bibliography:Figures S1-S8 and Tables S1-S3
Chinese Academy of Sciences
ArticleID:JGRD52391
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)'s Advanced Study Program (ASP)
National Natural Science Foundation of China - No. 41190083
ark:/67375/WNG-WRKBG5KD-T
istex:FE639EB377F4733B4AD5B6163129B3CAF61C333E
National Basic Research Program - No. 2013CB956004
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:2169-897X
2169-8996
DOI:10.1002/2015JD023193