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Recent glacier and glacial lake changes and their interactions in the Bugyai Kangri, southeast Tibet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2016

Qiao Liu ,
Wanqin Guo ,
Yong Nie ,
Shiyin Liu  and
Junli Xu
Qiao Liu*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
Wanqin Guo
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
Yong Nie
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
Shiyin Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
Junli Xu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
*
Correspondence: Liu Qiao <liuqiao@imde.ac.cn>
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Abstract

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Glaciers in the Bugyai Kangri are located in a transition zone from southeast Tibet, where monsoonal temperate glaciers dominate, to inner Tibet, where continental glaciers dominate. Here we analyze glacier and glacial lake changes in this region using multi-year inventories based on Landsat images from 1981–2013. Results show that the total area of 141 glaciers in the region decreased by 30.44 ±0.89 km2 from 198.35 ±9.54 km2 (1980s) to 167.93 ±4.52 km2 (2010s). The annual area shrinkage rate (–0.48% a–1) is lower than that reported for southeastern Tibet but higher than that of inner Tibet. Both the number and total area of glacial lakes increased between 1981 and 2013. Among all lakes, proglacial lakes contribute most (~81 %) to the expansion. The total area of ten proglacial lakes increased by 150.3 ± 13.17% and of these ten lakes the four that expanded most sharply showed increased calving at their upper margins, resulting in more rapid retreat of lake-terminating glaciers than land-terminating glaciers. Owing to rapid calving, several lakes may undergo further growth in the near future, increasing the potential risk of glacial lake outburst floods.

Keywords

climate changeglacier calvingglacier fluctuationsjökulhlaups (GLOFs)remote sensing
Type
Paper
Information
Annals of Glaciology , Volume 57 , Issue 71 , March 2016 , pp. 61 - 69
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016

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