Please wait a minute...
Journal of Arid Land  2015, Vol. 7 Issue (2): 146-158    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-014-0081-x     CSTR: 32276.14.s40333-014-0081-x
Brief Communication     
Characterizing regional precipitation-driven lake area change in Mongolia
Sinkyu KANG1, Gyoungbin LEE1, Chuluun TOGTOKH2, Keunchang JANG1
1 Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, South Korea;
2 Institute for Sustainable Development, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar 14201, Mongolia
Download:   PDF(366KB)
Export: BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)      

Abstract  Lake area is an important indicator for climate change and its relationship with climatic factors is critical for understanding the mechanisms that control lake level changes. In this study, lake area changes and their relations to precipitation were investigated using multi-temporal Landsat Thermatic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thermatic Mapper plus (ETM+) images collected from 10 different regions of Mongolia since the late 1980s. A linear-regression analysis was applied to examine the relationship between precipitation and lake area change for each region and across different regions of Mongolia. The relationships were interpreted in terms of re-gional climate regime and hydromorphological characteristics. A total of 165 lakes with areas greater than 10 hm2 were identified from the Landsat images, which were aggregated for each region to estimate the regional lake area. Temporal lake area variability was larger in the Gobi regions, where small lakes are densely dis-tributed. The regression analyses indicated that the regional patterns of precipitation-driven lake area changes varied considerably (R2=0.028–0.950), depending on regional climate regime and hydromorphological char-acteristics. Generally, the lake area change in the hot-and-dry Gobi regions showed higher correlations with precipitation change. The precedent two-month precipitation was the best determining factor of lake area change across Mongolia. Our results indicate the usefulness of regression analysis based on satellite-derived multi-temporal lake area data to identify regions where factors other than precipitation might play important roles in determining lake area change.

Key wordsDunhuang city      Crescent Moon Spring      pyramid dunes      dynamic characteristics      erosion and deposition     
Received: 10 February 2014      Published: 10 April 2015
Fund:  

This work was supported by research grants from Korea Forest Service (S211212L06301) and from National Research Founda-tion of Korea (NRF-2013R1A1A4A01008632). Sinkyu KANG was partly supported by Kangwon National University (C1009843-01-01).

Corresponding Authors:
Cite this article:

Sinkyu KANG, Gyoungbin LEE, Chuluun TOGTOKH, Keunchang JANG. Characterizing regional precipitation-driven lake area change in Mongolia. Journal of Arid Land, 2015, 7(2): 146-158.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-014-0081-x     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2015/V7/I2/146

Batima P, Natsagdorj L, Gombluudev P, et al. 2005. Observed climate change in Mongolia. AIACC Working Paper, 12: 5–20.

Castaneda C, Herrero J, Casterad, M A. 2005. Landsat monitoring of paya-lakes in the Spanish Monegros desert. Journal of Arid Environments, 63: 497–516.

Chavez P S Jr. 1996. Image-based atmospheric correc-tions-revisited and improved. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 62(9): 1025–1036.

Chuluun T, Altanbagana M, Tserenchunt B. 2010. Land degrada-tion and desertification in Mongolia. Background paper for Mongolian Human Development Report, Ulaanbaatar, Mongo-lia.

Cretaus J F, Birkett C. 2006. Lake studies from satellite radar altimetry. Comptes Rendus Geoscience, 338: 1098–1112.

Cretaus J F, Jelinski W, Calmant S, et al. 2011. SOLS: A lake da-tabase to monitor in the Near Real Time water level and stor-age variations from remote sensing data. Advances in Space Research, 47: 1497–1507.

Davaa G, Mijiddory R, Khudulmur S, et al. 2005. Responses of the Uvs lake regim to the air temperature fluxtuations and the environment changes. In: Proceedings of the Fist International Symposium on Terrestrial and Climate Change in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 130–133.

Davaa G, Oyunbaatar D, Sugita M. 2006. Surface water of Mon-golia. In: Environmental Book of Mongolia. Tokyo, Japan, 55–82.

Dietz A J, Amgalan E, Erdenechuluun T, et al. 2005. Carrying capacity dynamics, livestock commercialization and land deg-radation in Mongolia’s free market era. Poverty Reduction and Environmental Studies, Vrije University, the Netherlands.

Erdenetuya M, Khishigsuren P, Davaa G, et al. 2006. Glacier change estimation using Landsat TM data. International Ar-chives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science, 36, Part 6, Tokyo.

Igarash Y, Inomata Y, Aoyama M, et al. 2009. Possible change in Asian dust source suggested by atmospheric anthropogenic radionuclides during the 2000s. Atmospheric Environment, 43: 2971–2980.

Johnson D A, Sheehy D P, Miller D, et al. 2006. Mongolian rangelands in transition. Secheresse, 17: 133–141.

Kawata Y, Ohtani A, Kusaka T, et al. 1990. Classification accura-cy for the MOS-1 MESSR data before and after the atmos-pheric correction. IEEE Transactions. Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 28: 755–760.

Kim J. 2008. Transport routes and source regions of Asian dust observed in Korea during the past 40 years (1965–2004). Atmospheric Environment, 42: 4778–4789.

Komatsu G, Brantingham P J, Olsen J W, et al. 2001. Paleoshore-line geomorphology of Boon Tsagaan Nuur, Tsagaan Nuur and Orog Nuur: the Valley of Lakes, Mongolia. Geomorphology, 39: 83–98.

Lillesand T M, Kiefer R W, Chipman J W. 2004. Remote sensing and image interpretation, 5th edition. USA, John Willey & Sons, 574–575.

Liu H J, Zhou C H, Cheng W M, et al. 2008. Monitoring sandy desertification of Otindag Sandy Land based on multi-date remote sensing images. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 28(2): 627–635.

Liu J, Wang S, Shumei Y, et al. 2009. Climate warming and growth of high-elevation inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. Global and Planetary Change, 67: 209–217.

Ma R H, Duan H T, Hu C M, et al. 2010. A half-century of changes in China’s lakes: global warming or human influence? Geophysical Research Letters, 37: L24160, doi: 10.1029/2010GL045514.

Nadintsetseg B, Shinoda M. 2011. Seasonal change of soil mois-ture in Mongolia: its climatology and modeling. International Journal of Climatology, 31: 1143–1152.

Nakayama Y, Yanagi T, Yamaguchi S, et al. 2007. Monitoring of environmental change in Dzungar Basin by the analysis of multi-temporal satellite data sets. Advances in Space Research, 39: 52–59.

Natsagdorj L, Jugder D, Chung Y S. 2003. Analysis of dust storms observed in Mongolia during 1937–1999. Atmospheric Environment, 37: 1401–1411.

Neupert R F. 1996. Population, nomadic pastoralism and the environment in the Mongolian Plateau. Population and Envi-ronment, 20: 413–441.

Romanovsky V V, Tashbaeva S, Crétaux J F. 2013. The closed Lake Issyk-Kul as an indicator of global warming in Tien-Shan. Natural Science, 5(5): 608–623.

Saizen I, Maekawa A, Yamamura N. 2010. Spatial analysis of time-series changes in livestock distribution by detection of local spatial associations in Mongolia. Applied Geography, 30: 639–649.

Scepan J, Menz G, Hansen M C. 1999. The DISCover validation image interpretation process. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 65: 1075–1081.

Song C, Woodcock C E, Seto K C, et al. 2001. Classification and change detection using TM data: when and how to correct at-mospheric effects? Remote Sensing of Environment, 75: 230–244.

Tsujimura M, Abe Y, Tanaka T, et al. 2007. Stable isotopic and geochemical characteristics of groundwater in Kherlen River basin, a semi-arid region in eastern Mongolia. Journal of Hy-drology, 333: 47–57.

UNEP RRC.AP. 2002. State of environment, Mongolia 2002. AIT-UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and Pacific. http://www.rrcap.unep.org/pub/soe/mongoliasoe.cfm.

Yang H, Lee E, Do N, et al. 2012. Seasonal inter-annual varia-tions of lake surface area of Orog Lake in Gobi, Mongolia during 2000–2010. Korean Journal of Remote Sensing, 28: 267–276.
[1] ZHANG Hongxue, ZHANG Kecun, AN Zhishan, YU Yanping. Wind dynamic environment and wind-sand erosion and deposition processes on different surfaces along the Dunhuang-Golmud railway, China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2023, 15(4): 393-406.
[2] WANG Xinyu, SU Yu, SUN Yiqiu, ZHANG Yan, GUAN Yinghui, WANG Zhirong, WU Hailong. Sediment yield and erosion-deposition distribution characteristics in ephemeral gullies in black soil areas under geocell protection[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2023, 15(2): 180-190.
[3] Weimin ZHANG, Lihai TAN, Zhishan AN, Kecun ZHANG, Yang GAO, Qinghe NIU. Morphological variation of star dune and implications for dune management: a case study at the Crescent Moon Spring scenic spot of Dunhuang, China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2019, 11(3): 357-370.
[4] Wei ZHANG, Gaosen ZHANG, Xiukun WU, Guangxiu LIU, Zhibao DONG, Jianjun QU, Yun WANG, Tuo CHEN. Bacterial diversity in the sediment of Crescent Moon Spring, Kumtag Desert, Northwest China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2017, 9(2): 278-286.
[5] YingJun PANG, JianJun QU, KeCun ZHANG, ZhiShan AN, QingHe NIU. Quantitative analysis on the dynamic characteristics of megadunes around the Crescent Moon Spring, China[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2014, 6(3): 255-263.