Glacier and glacial lake changes and their relationship in the context of climate change, Central Tibetan Plateau 1972-2010

The alpine ecosystem of the Western Nyainqentanglha region, located in the Central Tibetan Plateau, has experienced a lot of changes in the context of climatic change. The long data record of remote sensing data allowed us to evaluate spatio-temporal change in this remote area. The ecosystem changes of the Western Nyainqentanglha region were detected by using Landast MSS/TM/ETM +, Hexagon KH-9, Glas/ICESat, SRTM3 DEM remote sensing data and GIS techniques. The area of glacier lakes was delineated by visual interpretation, while for the inland lake by image classification. The change of glacier thickness was obtained by Glas/ICESat data of 2004 and 2008. Results show high variation in extent of glaciers and lakes with increased temperature and precipitation in the past 40 years. These variations include glacial retreat, increased water level of inland lakes and increased number of glacier lakes to higher altitudes. Glaciers lost 22% of its coverage from 1977 to 2010, and the annual shrinkage rate accelerated in the last decade compared with the previous time period of 1977-2001. In average, the thickness of the monitored glaciers reduced by 4.48 m from 2004 to 2008 with an annual rate of 1.12 m. From 1972 to 2009, the number of new formed glacier lakes increased by 150 and the area of glacier lakes increased by 173% (4.53 km2). At the same time, the surface area of the largest salt lake in Tibet expanded by 4.13% (80.18 km2). These variations appear to be associated with an increase in mean annual temperature of 0.05 °C per year, and an increase in annual precipitation of 1.83 mm per year in the last four decades. By analyzing the relationship between the decreased glacier area and the increased number and extent of lakes in the vertical zones over the past 40 years, there is a high correlation of 0.81. These results indicate that the climate change has great impacts on glaciers and glacier lakes on the central Tibetan Plateau. Further detailed investigations are required to understand the contribution of melting water and precipitation to the water cycle and the complicated hydrological relationship between the characteristics of glaciers and glacier lakes and climate warming in this alpine region.