Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia)
Climate-driven changes in glacier-fed streamflow regimes have direct implications on freshwater supply, irrigation and hydropower potential. Reliable information about current and future glaciation and runoff is crucial for water allocation, a complex task in Central Asia, where the collapse of the...
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ftunivgeneve:oai:unige.ch:aou:unige:22035 2023-10-01T03:58:53+02:00 Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia) Sorg, Annina Bolch, Tobias Stoffel, Markus Solomina, Olga Beniston, Martin 2012 https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:22035 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nclimate1592 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/212250/EU/Assessment of Climatic change and impacts on the Quantity and quality of Water/ACQWA https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:22035 unige:22035 info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess ISSN: 1758-678X Nature climate change, no. 2 (2012) p. 725-731 info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/333.7-333.9 Climate change Glaciers Water resources info:eu-repo/semantics/article Text Article scientifique info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2012 ftunivgeneve https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1592 2023-09-07T07:03:42Z Climate-driven changes in glacier-fed streamflow regimes have direct implications on freshwater supply, irrigation and hydropower potential. Reliable information about current and future glaciation and runoff is crucial for water allocation, a complex task in Central Asia, where the collapse of the Soviet Union has transformed previously interdependent republics into autonomous upstream and downstream countries. Although the impacts of climate change on glaciation and runoff have been addressed in previous work undertaken in the Tien Shan (known as the ‘water tower of Central Asia'), a coherent, regional perspective of these findings has not been presented until now. Here we show that glacier shrinkage is most pronounced in peripheral, lower-elevation ranges near the densely populated forelands, where summers are dry and where snow and glacial meltwater is essential for water availability. Shifts of seasonal runoff maxima have already been observed in some rivers, and it is suggested that summer runoff will further decrease in these rivers if precipitation and discharge from thawing permafrost bodies do not compensate sufficiently for water shortfalls. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Université de Genève: Archive ouverte UNIGE Nature Climate Change 2 10 725 731 |
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Open Polar |
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Université de Genève: Archive ouverte UNIGE |
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ftunivgeneve |
language |
English |
topic |
info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/333.7-333.9 Climate change Glaciers Water resources |
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info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/333.7-333.9 Climate change Glaciers Water resources Sorg, Annina Bolch, Tobias Stoffel, Markus Solomina, Olga Beniston, Martin Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia) |
topic_facet |
info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/333.7-333.9 Climate change Glaciers Water resources |
description |
Climate-driven changes in glacier-fed streamflow regimes have direct implications on freshwater supply, irrigation and hydropower potential. Reliable information about current and future glaciation and runoff is crucial for water allocation, a complex task in Central Asia, where the collapse of the Soviet Union has transformed previously interdependent republics into autonomous upstream and downstream countries. Although the impacts of climate change on glaciation and runoff have been addressed in previous work undertaken in the Tien Shan (known as the ‘water tower of Central Asia'), a coherent, regional perspective of these findings has not been presented until now. Here we show that glacier shrinkage is most pronounced in peripheral, lower-elevation ranges near the densely populated forelands, where summers are dry and where snow and glacial meltwater is essential for water availability. Shifts of seasonal runoff maxima have already been observed in some rivers, and it is suggested that summer runoff will further decrease in these rivers if precipitation and discharge from thawing permafrost bodies do not compensate sufficiently for water shortfalls. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sorg, Annina Bolch, Tobias Stoffel, Markus Solomina, Olga Beniston, Martin |
author_facet |
Sorg, Annina Bolch, Tobias Stoffel, Markus Solomina, Olga Beniston, Martin |
author_sort |
Sorg, Annina |
title |
Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia) |
title_short |
Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia) |
title_full |
Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia) |
title_fullStr |
Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia) |
title_sort |
climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in tien shan (central asia) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:22035 |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
ISSN: 1758-678X Nature climate change, no. 2 (2012) p. 725-731 |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nclimate1592 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/212250/EU/Assessment of Climatic change and impacts on the Quantity and quality of Water/ACQWA https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:22035 unige:22035 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1592 |
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Nature Climate Change |
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2 |
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10 |
container_start_page |
725 |
op_container_end_page |
731 |
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1778532118444376064 |