Effect of climate change on runoff in a basin with mountain permafrost, northwest China

• Published in: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
• Main Authors: Liu, Jingshi, Wang, Siyuan, Huang, Yuying
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2007
• Subjects: permafrost; Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.602; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fppp.602; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ppp.602

Abstract Trends and variability in basin hydrological regime and climate were analysed for a mountain permafrost catchment in northwest China for the period 1957–2004. The Mann–Kendall non‐parametric test was used to detect trends and the Trend Free Pre‐Whitening approach was employed to correct the time‐series data for autocorrelation. Statistically significant trends for the entire period included strong increases in winter air temperatures and winter monthly flows (December to March). However, change‐point analyses revealed that much of the apparently long‐term trend was actually due to abrupt changes in the variables that mainly occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.