Lake-Level Change and Water Balance Analysis at Lake Qinghai,West China during Recent Decades |
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Authors: | Xiao-Yan Li He-Ye Xu Yong-Liang Sun Deng-Shan Zhang Zhi-Peng Yang |
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Affiliation: | (1) The Key Lab of Environment Change and Natural Disaster, Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China;(2) Institute of Land Resources, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China;(3) College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China |
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Abstract: | Lake Qinghai, the largest saline lake with an area of 4,260 km2 (2000) and average depth of 21 m (1985) in West China, has experienced severe decline in water level in recent decades. This
study aimed to investigate water balance of the lake and identify the causes for the decline in lake level. There was a 3.35-m
decline in water level with an average decreasing rate of 8.0 cm year−1 between 1959 and 2000. The lake water balance showed that mean annual precipitation between 1959 and 2000 over the lake was
357 ± 10 mm, evaporation was 924 ± 10 mm, surface runoff water inflow was 348 ± 21 mm, groundwater inflow was 138 mm ± 9 and
the change in lake level was −80 ± 31 mm. The variation of lake level was highly positively correlated to surface runoff and
precipitation and negatively to evaporation, the correlation coefficients were 0.89, 0.81 and −0.66, respectively. Water consumption
by human activities accounts for 1% of the evaporation loss of the lake, implying that water consumption by human activities
has little effect on lake level decline. Most dramatic decline in lake level occurred in the warm and dry years, and moderate
decline in the cold and dry years, and relatively slight decline in the warm and wet years, therefore, the trend of cold/warm
and dry climate in recent decades may be the main reasons for the decline in lake level. |
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Keywords: | lake level water balance climatic change Lake Qinghai precipitation temperature West China |
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