Hydrologic response to extreme climate change in the Qinghai Lake Basin
Climate change has significantly intensified extreme temperature and precipitation events in the Qinghai Lake Basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, yet their hydrological consequences remain insufficiently quantified. Based on daily meteorological and hydrological data from 1960 to 2016, this s...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-09-01
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| Series: | Ecological Indicators |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X2500980X |
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| Summary: | Climate change has significantly intensified extreme temperature and precipitation events in the Qinghai Lake Basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, yet their hydrological consequences remain insufficiently quantified. Based on daily meteorological and hydrological data from 1960 to 2016, this study investigated trends in extreme climate indices and assessed their impacts on runoff, evapotranspiration, water level, and water storage. Results revealed that annual extreme precipitation (R95pTOT) increased by approximately 1.25 mm yr−1, while the frequency of extremely warm days (TX90P) increased by 0.5 days yr−1 and extremely cold days (TN10P) decreased by 0.4 days yr−1. These shifts significantly influenced the basin’s hydrology. Notably, runoff increased after a change point in 2004, closely related to higher RX5day values. Evapotranspiration exhibited a strong positive correlation with the growing season length (GSL), indicating temperature-driven moisture loss. In contrast, water level showed high interannual variability and was more closely related to annual total precipitation rather than extremes. Although water storage increased slightly, it fluctuated greatly due to the combined effects of warming-induced evapotranspiration and precipitation variability. These findings quantitatively demonstrate that extreme climate events have exerted nonlinear and seasonally asynchronous impacts on hydrological processes in the Qinghai Lake Basin, highlighting the need for basin-scale climate resilience strategies. |
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| ISSN: | 1470-160X |