Investigating The Temporal And Spatial Variation Of The Glaciers In Typical Regions Of Western China Under The Background Of Climate Change

Abstract:Global freshwater resources is mainly stored in glaciers, and meanwhile the glaciers are regarded as a one of key indicators for climate change. So under the background of freshwater resources crisis and global climate change, the glacier increasingly become a hot research topic, such as the research about the characteristic of temporal and spatial variation of glaciers, the relation between glacier variation and climate change and the change of global sea level, etc.This paper focused on investigating the temporal and spatial variation of glaciers based on existing data foundation and technology platform, mainly including the work about response of Glacier No.1at headwaters of Urumqi River to climate change, the glacier change and its analysis around Kunlun Peak in the West Kunlun Mountains, the variation of glacier volume in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Interior Area. The main contribution of this paper lies in:(1) Improving the control-method which is used toestimate glacier response time estimation and applying it to Glacier No.1at headwaters of Urumqi River, Tianshan Mountain, China. According to this research we infer that the Glacier No.1have been in a stable state. Our improved method can help perform more wide study on the response mechanism of glaciers’.Besides, our research on Glacier No.1makes it clearer to understand its temporal and spatial variation.(2) Investigating the glacier change and its analysis around Kunlun Peak in the West Kunlun Mountains. We find that the glaciers retreat slower than other glaciated regions in western China. The differences between glaciers in the southern slope and glaciers in the northern slope mainly relate to slope and glacier scale. Although we acknowledge that the temperature and precipitation play leading role when glaciers are in change, it is better have a concrete analysis for glaciers in different regions and under different climate background.(3) Analyzing the glacier variation in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Interior Area, and estimating the glacier volume changes from1970s to 2000s in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Interior Area, being-36.25km3for the first time.Our result has certain valuable reference for the further research on glacier reserves change in this region. We further investigating the relationship between glacier volume changes and climate change, and the influence of glacier volume changes on ecology and environment. Figures:18, Tables:10, Referens:122.