TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaporation variability of Nam Co Lake in the Tibetan Plateau and its role in recent rapid lake expansion
AU - Ma, Ning
AU - Szilagyi, Jozsef
AU - Niu, Guo Yue
AU - Zhang, Yinsheng
AU - Zhang, Teng
AU - Wang, Binbin
AU - Wu, Yanhong
N1 - Funding Information:
The CFMD data is developed by Data Assimilation and Modeling Center for Tibetan Multi-spheres, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and can be accessed from Cold and Arid Regions Science Data Center at Lanzhou ( http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn ). The D20 pan evaporation and precipitation data of Bange station as well as E601B pan evaporation data of Maduo and Dali stations are provided by China Meteorological Administration. We thank Dr. Murray Peel for sharing the original code of CRLE model. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that lead to a much improved manuscript. This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41190082 ) and the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of CAS ( XDB03030206 ). The financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41430748 ) is also acknowledged. Ning Ma thanks the funding support from China Scholarship Council ( 201504910657 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2016/6/1
Y1 - 2016/6/1
N2 - Previous studies have shown that the majority of the lakes in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) started to expand rapidly since the late 1990s. However, the causes are still not well known. For Nam Co, being a closed lake with no outflow, evaporation (EL) over the lake surface is the only way water may leave the lake. Therefore, quantifying EL is key for investigating the mechanism of lake expansion in the TP. EL can be quantified by Penman- and/or bulk-transfer-type models, requiring only net radiation, temperature, humidity and wind speed for inputs. However, interpolation of wind speed data may be laden with great uncertainty due to extremely sparse ground meteorological observations, the highly heterogeneous landscape and lake-land breeze effects. Here, evaporation of Nam Co Lake was investigated within the 1979-2012 period at a monthly time-scale using the complementary relationship lake evaporation (CRLE) model which does not require wind speed data. Validations by in-situ observations of E601B pan evaporation rates at the shore of Nam Co Lake as well as measured EL over an adjacent small lake using eddy covariance technique suggest that CRLE is capable of simulating EL well since it implicitly considers wind effects on evaporation via its vapor transfer coefficient. The multi-year average of annual evaporation of Nam Co Lake is 635 mm. From 1979 to 2012, annual evaporation of Nam Co Lake expressed a very slight decreasing trend. However, a more significant decrease in EL occurred during 1998-2008 at a rate of -12 mm yr-1. Based on water-level readings, this significant decrease in lake evaporation was found to be responsible for approximately 4% of the reported rapid water level increase and areal expansion of Nam Co Lake during the same period.
AB - Previous studies have shown that the majority of the lakes in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) started to expand rapidly since the late 1990s. However, the causes are still not well known. For Nam Co, being a closed lake with no outflow, evaporation (EL) over the lake surface is the only way water may leave the lake. Therefore, quantifying EL is key for investigating the mechanism of lake expansion in the TP. EL can be quantified by Penman- and/or bulk-transfer-type models, requiring only net radiation, temperature, humidity and wind speed for inputs. However, interpolation of wind speed data may be laden with great uncertainty due to extremely sparse ground meteorological observations, the highly heterogeneous landscape and lake-land breeze effects. Here, evaporation of Nam Co Lake was investigated within the 1979-2012 period at a monthly time-scale using the complementary relationship lake evaporation (CRLE) model which does not require wind speed data. Validations by in-situ observations of E601B pan evaporation rates at the shore of Nam Co Lake as well as measured EL over an adjacent small lake using eddy covariance technique suggest that CRLE is capable of simulating EL well since it implicitly considers wind effects on evaporation via its vapor transfer coefficient. The multi-year average of annual evaporation of Nam Co Lake is 635 mm. From 1979 to 2012, annual evaporation of Nam Co Lake expressed a very slight decreasing trend. However, a more significant decrease in EL occurred during 1998-2008 at a rate of -12 mm yr-1. Based on water-level readings, this significant decrease in lake evaporation was found to be responsible for approximately 4% of the reported rapid water level increase and areal expansion of Nam Co Lake during the same period.
KW - CRLE model
KW - Lake evaporation
KW - Lake expansion
KW - Nam Co Lake
KW - Tibetan Plateau
KW - Wind speed
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84961627849&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84961627849&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.03.030
DO - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.03.030
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84961627849
SN - 0022-1694
VL - 537
SP - 27
EP - 35
JO - Journal of Hydrology
JF - Journal of Hydrology
ER -