Cryospheric water regime by its functions and services in China

• Published in: Advances in Climate Change Research
• Main Authors: Wei Zhang, Xiaoming Wang, Yong-Ping Shen, Xue-Wen Yang, Yu-Wei Wu, An-An Chen, Xue-Jiao Wu, Shi-Wei Liu, Yang Yang, Jing-Lin Zhang, Chen-Yu Li
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2021
• Subjects: Cryospheric meltwater; Functions and services; Glaciers; Snow cover; Permafrost; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Social sciences (General); H1-99; permafrost
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accre.2021.05.008; https://doaj.org/article/f7a37a116db9487280225ab7332e0a9a

The terrestrial cryosphere functions to provide critical freshwater and serve societies and ecosystems, driving nature's contributions to people (NCP). This becomes increasingly important for the oasis areas in Northwest China. The cryospheric meltwater is in demand to support the economy and reduce poverty, accompanied by growing requirements to protect the environment. We intend to investigate the contributions of cryospheric meltwater by analyzing the spatial functions and services pertinent to provisioning meltwater in China. Based on the currently available datasets during the 2000s of glaciers, snow cover, and permafrost, spatial clustering was utilized to analyze the contributions at the third-level basin scale. Further assessment is carried out for the exposure of primary, secondary, and tertiary industrial sectors to cryospheric meltwater, which reflects the spatiality of potential services that cryospheric meltwater may provide. In results, we spatially cluster the contribution of cryospheric meltwater into six function zones and twenty-seven sub-zones, in association with the degree of their reliance on glaciers, snow cover, and permafrost. Considering the sector's exposure, we further spatially cluster the contribution areas into eleven service zones concerning the potential service of cryospheric meltwater. Generally, the cryosphere contributes approximately 8.3% of the total water resource in China, with function zones mainly distributed in northeastern China, Qinghai−Tibet Plateau (QTP), and other arid regions of Northwest China with various significance. The overall contribution ratios of the glacier, snow cover, and permafrost to cryospheric meltwater are about 35.6%, 56.5%, and 7.9%, respectively. By looking into the service zones, the cryospheric meltwater mainly contributes to the primary industry in Northwest China and QTP, even though it has less significant effects on all other industrial sectors, while the services to the ecosystem are mainly located in QTP and high mountain regions. The ...