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Journal of Arid Land  2013, Vol. 5 Issue (2): 188-198    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-013-0156-0
Research Articles     
Climate effects on an inland alpine lake in Xinjiang, China over the past 40 years
HuiXia CHAI1, WeiMing CHENG1, ChengHu ZHOU1, ShangMin ZHAO2, HaiJiang LIU3
1 State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Re-sources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;
2 Department of Surveying Mapping, College of Mining Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China;
3 China National Environmental Monitoring Center, Beijing 100012, China
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Abstract  Inland lakes are important water resources in arid and semiarid regions. Understanding climate effects on these lakes is critical to accurately evaluate the dynamic changes of water resources. This study focused on the changes in Sayram Lake of Xinjiang, China, and addressed the effects of climate fluctuations on the inland lake based on long-term sequenced remote sensing images and meteorological data from the past 40 years. A geo-graphic information system (GIS) method was used to obtain the hypsometry of the basin area of Sayram Lake, and estimation methods for evaporation from rising temperature and water levels from increasing precipitation were proposed. Results showed that: (1) Areal values of Sayram Lake have increased over the past 40 years. (2) Both temperature and precipitation have increased with average increases of more than 1.8°C and 82 mm, respectively. Variation of the water levels in the lake was consistent with local climate changes, and the areal values show linear relationships with local temperature and precipitation data. (3) According to the hypsometry data of the basin area, the estimated lake water levels increased by 2.8 m, and the water volume increased by 12.9×108 m3 over the past 40 years. The increasing area of Sayram Lake correlated with local and regional climatic changes because it is hardly affected by human activities.

Key wordsaerosol profile      aerosol layer height      atmospheric boundary layer      atmospheric conditions      distribution pattern     
Received: 23 July 2012      Published: 01 June 2013
Fund:  

The National Science Technology Support Plan Project (2012BAH28B01-03), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41171332), the National Science Technology Basic Special Project (2011FY110400-2), and the China Postdoctoral Sci-ence Foundation (2012M510526)

Corresponding Authors:
Cite this article:

HuiXia CHAI, WeiMing CHENG, ChengHu ZHOU, ShangMin ZHAO, HaiJiang LIU. Climate effects on an inland alpine lake in Xinjiang, China over the past 40 years. Journal of Arid Land, 2013, 5(2): 188-198.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-013-0156-0     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2013/V5/I2/188

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