Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost
The source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) provides 35 % of the rivers annual discharge but is very sensitive to the climate change. The change in discharge from the SRYR has been attributed to both climatic and anthropogenic forces, and previous estimates of the impact of human activities on the...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:hessd65003 2023-05-15T17:57:04+02:00 Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost Wu, Pan Liang, Sihai Wang, Xu-Sheng Feng, Yuqing McKenzie, Jeffrey M. 2018-09-27 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-744 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/hess-2017-744/ eng eng doi:10.5194/hess-2017-744 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/hess-2017-744/ eISSN: 1607-7938 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-744 2019-12-24T09:50:37Z The source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) provides 35 % of the rivers annual discharge but is very sensitive to the climate change. The change in discharge from the SRYR has been attributed to both climatic and anthropogenic forces, and previous estimates of the impact of human activities on the change in discharge have been higher than 50 % of the total change. Considering the very low population density and limited land use change, this result is potentially inconsistent. Our study modifies the traditional Budyko separating approach to identify and quantify the climatic causes in discharge changes. Application of this new approach to the SRYR now highlights the role of the degrading permafrost, based on long-term observation data of the maximum frozen depth (MFD). Our results show that over the past half-century, the change in discharge in the SRYR was primarily controlled by climate change rather than local human activities. Increasing air temperature is generally a negative force on discharge whereas it also causes permafrost to degrade – a positive factor on discharge generation. Such conflicting effects enhance the uncertainty in assessments of the hydrological response to climate change in the SRYR. Text permafrost Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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English |
description |
The source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) provides 35 % of the rivers annual discharge but is very sensitive to the climate change. The change in discharge from the SRYR has been attributed to both climatic and anthropogenic forces, and previous estimates of the impact of human activities on the change in discharge have been higher than 50 % of the total change. Considering the very low population density and limited land use change, this result is potentially inconsistent. Our study modifies the traditional Budyko separating approach to identify and quantify the climatic causes in discharge changes. Application of this new approach to the SRYR now highlights the role of the degrading permafrost, based on long-term observation data of the maximum frozen depth (MFD). Our results show that over the past half-century, the change in discharge in the SRYR was primarily controlled by climate change rather than local human activities. Increasing air temperature is generally a negative force on discharge whereas it also causes permafrost to degrade – a positive factor on discharge generation. Such conflicting effects enhance the uncertainty in assessments of the hydrological response to climate change in the SRYR. |
format |
Text |
author |
Wu, Pan Liang, Sihai Wang, Xu-Sheng Feng, Yuqing McKenzie, Jeffrey M. |
spellingShingle |
Wu, Pan Liang, Sihai Wang, Xu-Sheng Feng, Yuqing McKenzie, Jeffrey M. Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost |
author_facet |
Wu, Pan Liang, Sihai Wang, Xu-Sheng Feng, Yuqing McKenzie, Jeffrey M. |
author_sort |
Wu, Pan |
title |
Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost |
title_short |
Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost |
title_full |
Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost |
title_fullStr |
Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the Yellow River: a new assessment including varying permafrost |
title_sort |
climate-induced hydrologic change in the source region of the yellow river: a new assessment including varying permafrost |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-744 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/hess-2017-744/ |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
eISSN: 1607-7938 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/hess-2017-744 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/hess-2017-744/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-744 |
_version_ |
1766165423891415040 |