Publications

Wen, B; Zhang, TB; Zhou, XB; Yi, GH; Li, JJ; Bie, XJ; Chen, Y (2023). Variation characteristics of frozen ground degradation in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau observed using time series data of MODIS from 2000 to 2020. THEORETICAL AND APPLIED CLIMATOLOGY.

Abstract
As an important component of the cryosphere, the frozen ground is sensitive to climate change. With global warming, frozen ground in most regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is degrading. The Stefan model and the temperature at the top of the permafrost (TTOP) model were adopted to estimate the spatial distribution of frozen ground and maximum soil freezing depth (SFD) based on multiple datasets across the QTP from 2000 to 2020. Results were then evaluated. The objective of this study is to investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of the frozen ground in the QTP in the past 20 years. In the QTP, permafrost mainly distributes in the central and the western regions, covering an area of about 9.69 x 10(5) km(2) and accounting for 39.5% of the total area of QTP. The mean area of seasonally frozen ground was similar to 1.39 x 10(6) km(2), and the mean SFD was similar to 1.28 m. The SFD showed a spatial distribution pattern of being deep in the west and north and shallow in the east and south. In the past 2 decades, permafrost areas in the QTP decreased by about 8.52 x 10(4) km(2). The regions with permafrost disappearing were mainly located in the transition areas from permafrost to seasonally frozen ground. There was an obvious disappearance of permafrost in the Qilian Mountains, the source region of the Yangtze River, and the source region of the Yellow River. The SFD decreased at about 60.82% of the QTP, and the annual average decreasing rate was - 4.3 cmmiddot(10a)(-1). Regions with a significant decrease in the SFD were mainly located at the center of the Qaidam Basin in the northern regions and the Western Sichuan Plateau and the Hengduan Mountains in the southwest regions, and their decreasing rate was about - 12 similar to - 5 cmmiddot(10a)(-1).

DOI:
10.1007/s00704-022-04344-6

ISSN:
1434-4483