Glacier Mass-Balance Variation in China during the Past Half Century

Autor: Muhammad Naveed Anjum, Yousif Elnour Yagoub, Ahmed A. H. Siddig, Omer Said Musa, Zhongqin Li
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection. :37-58
ISSN: 2327-4344
2327-4336
Popis: The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of temperature trend on glacier-mass balance, snow density, snowmelt, snow depth and runoff by using observations of nine glacier stations that covered most of the China over the period of 1979-2013. Trend analysis showed an increasing trend of temperature on all of the selected stations. On an average, temperature (?C) was increasing at the rate of 0.46/10a. The increasing trend of temperature showed a negative relationship with annual glacier-mass balance on most of the stations and caused a decrease in annual balance. Results of Pearson’s correlation analysis showed a highly significant negative correlation between temperature and snow density (correlation coefficient (CC = ?0.661 at 0.01 significance level). There was a significant positive correlation between temperature and snowmelt (CC = 0.532 at 0.01 significance level). There was a significant negative correlation between temperature and snow depth (corre-lation coefficient (CC = ?0.342 at 0.05 significance level). Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between temperature and runoff (CC = 0.586 at 0.01 significance level). Increasing trend of temperature caused an increasing trend of annual snowmelt and runoff anomaly% at the rate of 24.82/10a and 9.87/10a, respectively. On the other hand, a declining trend in annual snow density and snow depth anomaly% was found at a rate of ?5.32/10a and ?1.93/10a, respectively. We concluded that the snow density, snowmelt and runoff are significantly sensitive to temperature in China. This contribution has provided information for further understanding of glacier variation and its influencing factors.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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