Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach
The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) has responded to remarkable climate warming with dramatic permafrost degradation over the past few decades. Previous studies have mostly focused on permafrost responses to rising air temperature, while the effects of accompanying increases in precipitation remain cont...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:040f02ab1e4c448bb208f26dd51828e3 2023-10-09T21:44:00+02:00 Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach Jingjing Yang Taihua Wang Dawen Yang 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c https://doaj.org/article/040f02ab1e4c448bb208f26dd51828e3 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/040f02ab1e4c448bb208f26dd51828e3 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 18, Iss 9, p 094038 (2023) climate wetting permafrost degradation active layer thickness Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c 2023-09-10T00:37:29Z The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) has responded to remarkable climate warming with dramatic permafrost degradation over the past few decades. Previous studies have mostly focused on permafrost responses to rising air temperature, while the effects of accompanying increases in precipitation remain contentious and largely unknown. In this study, a distributed process-based model was applied to quantify the impacts of increased precipitation on permafrost thermal regimes in a warming climate by employing model experiments in the source region of Yellow River (SRYR) on the eastern QTP. The results showed that the active layer thickness (ALT) of permafrost increased by 0.25 m during 2010–2019 compared to 2000 across the SRYR, which was primarily driven by climate warming. In contrast, the increased annual precipitation played a relatively limited role and just slightly mitigated active layer thickening by 0.03 m. Intriguingly, increased precipitation in the cold and warm seasons exerted opposite effects on permafrost across the SRYR. The increased precipitation in the cold season mainly promoted ALT increases, while the increased precipitation in the warm season mitigated ALT increases. In ∼81.0% of the permafrost across the SRYR, the cooling effects of warm season wetting outweighed the warming effects of cold season wetting; while at the transition zone where permafrost was unstable and degrading to seasonally frozen ground, the warming effects of cold season wetting played a relatively larger role which contributed to permafrost degradation. This study explored the physical mechanisms of permafrost thermal responses to climate wetting, thus providing a better understanding of permafrost change in a warmer and wetter climate on the QTP. Article in Journal/Newspaper Active layer thickness permafrost Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Environmental Research Letters 18 9 094038 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
climate wetting permafrost degradation active layer thickness Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
climate wetting permafrost degradation active layer thickness Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Jingjing Yang Taihua Wang Dawen Yang Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach |
topic_facet |
climate wetting permafrost degradation active layer thickness Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) has responded to remarkable climate warming with dramatic permafrost degradation over the past few decades. Previous studies have mostly focused on permafrost responses to rising air temperature, while the effects of accompanying increases in precipitation remain contentious and largely unknown. In this study, a distributed process-based model was applied to quantify the impacts of increased precipitation on permafrost thermal regimes in a warming climate by employing model experiments in the source region of Yellow River (SRYR) on the eastern QTP. The results showed that the active layer thickness (ALT) of permafrost increased by 0.25 m during 2010–2019 compared to 2000 across the SRYR, which was primarily driven by climate warming. In contrast, the increased annual precipitation played a relatively limited role and just slightly mitigated active layer thickening by 0.03 m. Intriguingly, increased precipitation in the cold and warm seasons exerted opposite effects on permafrost across the SRYR. The increased precipitation in the cold season mainly promoted ALT increases, while the increased precipitation in the warm season mitigated ALT increases. In ∼81.0% of the permafrost across the SRYR, the cooling effects of warm season wetting outweighed the warming effects of cold season wetting; while at the transition zone where permafrost was unstable and degrading to seasonally frozen ground, the warming effects of cold season wetting played a relatively larger role which contributed to permafrost degradation. This study explored the physical mechanisms of permafrost thermal responses to climate wetting, thus providing a better understanding of permafrost change in a warmer and wetter climate on the QTP. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jingjing Yang Taihua Wang Dawen Yang |
author_facet |
Jingjing Yang Taihua Wang Dawen Yang |
author_sort |
Jingjing Yang |
title |
Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach |
title_short |
Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach |
title_full |
Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach |
title_fullStr |
Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach |
title_full_unstemmed |
Divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau based on modeling approach |
title_sort |
divergent responses of permafrost degradation to precipitation increases at different seasons on the eastern qinghai–tibet plateau based on modeling approach |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c https://doaj.org/article/040f02ab1e4c448bb208f26dd51828e3 |
genre |
Active layer thickness permafrost |
genre_facet |
Active layer thickness permafrost |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 18, Iss 9, p 094038 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/040f02ab1e4c448bb208f26dd51828e3 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf05c |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
094038 |
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1779312700578332672 |