• The dataset includes soil physical and chemical attributes: pH value, organic matter fraction, cation exchange capacity, root abundance, total nitrogen (N), total phosphorus (P), total potassium (K), alkali-hydrolysable N, available P, available K, exchangeable H+, Al3+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+ , Na+, horizon thickness, soil profile depth, sand, silt and clay fractions, rock fragment, bulk density, porosity, structure, consistency and soil color. Quality control information (QC) was provided. The resolution is 30 arc-seconds (about 1 km at the equator). The vertical variation of soil property was captured by eight layers to the depth of 2.3 m (i.e. 0- 0.045, 0.045- 0.091, 0.091- 0.166, 0.166- 0.289, 0.289- 0.493, 0.493- 0.829, 0.829- 1.383 and 1.383- 2.296 m) for convenience of use in the Common Land Model and the Community Land Model (CLM). 1.THSCH.nc: Saturated water content of FCH 2.PSI_S.nc: Saturated capillary potential of FCH 3.LAMBDA.nc: Pore size distribution index of FCH 4.K_SCH.nc: Saturate hydraulic conductivity of FCH 5.THR.nc: Residual moisture content of FGM 6.THSGM.nc: Saturated water content of FGM 7.ALPHA.nc: The inverse of the air-entry value of FGM 8.N.nc: The shape parameter of FGM 9.L.nc: The pore-connectivity parameter of FGM 10.K_SVG.nc: Saturated hydraulic conductivity of FGM 11.TH33.nc: Water content at -33 kPa of suction pressure, or field capacity 12.TH1500.nc: Water content at -1500 kPa of suction pressure, or permanent wilting point

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  • Relationship between modern pollen and climate, and its representative to vegetation are the important references in explaining and reconstructing past climate and vegetation qualitatively or quantitatively. To extrct past climate and vegetation signals from fossil pollen spectrum of a lacustrine sediment, a corresponding modern pollen dataset collected from lake-sediment surface is necessary. At present, there are a few modern pollen datasets extracted from lake sediment-surface established on the Tibetan Plateau, however, the geographic gaps (e.g. the central and east Tibetan Plateau) of available sampled lakes influence the correct understanding. To ensure the even distribution of the representative lakes, we collected lake sediment-surface samples (n=117) covering the alpine meadow evenly on the east and central Tibetan Plateau, in July and August 2018. For pollen extraction, approximately 10 g (wet original sediment) per sample were sub-sampled. Pollen sample was processed by the standard acid-alkali-acid procedures followed by 7-μm-mesh sieving. More than 500 terrestrial pollen grains were counted for each sample. Pollen assemblages of the dataset from alpine meadow are dominated by Cyperaceae (mean is 68.4%, maximum is 95.9%), with other herbaceous pollen taxa as commen taxa including Poaceae (mean is 10.3%, maximum is 87.7%), Ranunculaceae (mean is 4.8%, maximum is 33.6%), Artemisia (mean is 3.7%, maximum is 24.5%), Asteraceae (mean is 2.1%, maximum is 33.6%), etc. Salix (mean is 0.4%, maximum is 5.3%) is the major shrub taxon in these pollen assemblages, while arboreal taxa occur with low percentages generally (mean of total arboreal percentages is 0.9% (maximum is 5.8%), including mainly Pinus (mean is 0.3%, maximum is 1.8%), Betula (mean is 0.1%, maximum is 0.9%) and Alnus (mean is 0.1%, maximum is 0.7%). These pollen assemblages represent the plant components well in the alpine meadow communities, although they are influenced slightly by long-distance pollen grain transported by wind or river (such as these arboreal pollen taxa). Together with pollen counts and percentages, we also provided the modern climatic data for the sampled lakes. The China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD; gridded near-surface meteorological dataset) with a temporal resolution of three hours and a spatial resolution of 0.1° was employed, and the climatic data of the nearest pixel of one sampled lake was defined to represent climatic conditions of the lake. Finally, the mean annual precipitation (Pann), mean annual temperature (Tann) and mean temperature of the coldest month (Mtco) and warmest month (Mtwa) are calculated for each sampled lake.

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  • These datasets include mean annual ground temperature (MAGT) at the depth of zero annual amplitude (approximately 3 m to 25 m), active layer thickness (ALT), the probability of the permafrost occurrence, and the new permafrost zonation based on hydrothermal condition for the period of 2000-2016 in the Northern Hemisphere with an 1-km resolution by integrate unprecedentedly large amounts of field data (1,002 boreholes for MAGT and 452 sites for ALT) and multisource geospatial data, especially remote sensing data, using statistical learning modelling with an ensemble strategy, and thus more accurate than previous circumpolar maps.

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  • This dataset contains five types of boundaries. 1. TPBoundary_ 2500m: Based on ETOPO5 Global Surface Relief, ENVI+IDL was used to extract data at an elevation of 2500m within the longitude (65~105E) and latitude (20~45N) range in the Tibetan Plateau. 2. TPBoundary_ 3000m: Based on ETOPO5 Global Surface Relief, ENVI+IDL was used to extract data at an elevation of 3000m within the longitude (65~105E) and latitude (20~45N) range in the Tibetan Plateau. 3. TPBoundary_ HF (high_frequency): This boundary is defined according to 2 previous studies. Bingyuan Li (1987) had a systematic discussion on the principles for determining the extent of the Tibetan Plateau and the specific boundaries. From the perspective of the formation and basic characteristics of the Tibetan Plateau, he proposed the basic principles for determining the extent of the Tibetan Plateau based on the geomorphological features, the plateau surface and its altitude, while considering the integrity of the mountain. Yili Zhang (2002) determined the extent and boundaries of the Tibetan Plateau based on the new results of research in related fields and years of field practice. He combined information technology methods to precisely locate and quantitatively analyze the extent and boundary location of the Tibetan Plateau, and concluded that the Tibetan Plateau in China extends from the Pamir Plateau in the west to the Hengduan Mountains in the east, from the southern edge of the Himalayas in the south to the northern side of the Kunlun-Qilian Mountains in the north. On April 14, 2017, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China issued the Announcement on Adding Geographical Names for Public Use in the Southern Tibetan Region (First Batch), adding six geographical names in the southern Tibetan region, including Wo’gyainling, Mila Ri, Qoidêngarbo Ri, Mainquka, Bümo La, and Namkapub Ri. 4. TPBoundary_ New (2021): Along with the in-depth research on the Tibetan Plateau, the improvement of multidisciplinary research and understanding inside and outside the plateau, and the progress of geographic big data and Earth observation science and technology, the development of the 2021 version of the Tibetan Plateau boundary data by Yili Zhang and et al. was completed based on the comprehensive analysis of ASTER GDEM and Google Earth remote sensing images. The range boundary starts from the northern foot of the West Kunlun Mountain-Qilian Mountain Range in the north and reaches the southern foot of the Himalayas and other mountain ranges in the south, with a maximum width of 1,560 km from north to south; from the western edge of the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Pamir Plateau in the west to the eastern edge of the Hengduan Mountains and other mountain ranges in the east, with a maximum length of about 3,360 km from east to west; the latitude and longitude range is 25°59′30″N~40°1′0″N, 67°40′37″E~104°40′57″E, with a total area of 3,083,400km2 and an average altitude of about 4,320m. Administratively, the Tibetan Plateau is distributed in nine countries, including China, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan. 5. TPBoundary_ Rectangle: The rectangle was drawn according to the range of Lon (63~105E) and Lat (20~45N). The data are in latitude and longitude projection WGS84. As the basic data, the boundary of the Tibetan Plateau can be used as a reference basis for various geological data and scientific research on the Tibetan Plateau.

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  • This dataset is the monthly precipitation data of China, with a spatial resolution of 0.0083333 ° (about 1km) and a time range of 1901.1-2021.12. The data format is NETCDF, i.e.. Nc format. This dataset is generated in China through the Delta spatial downscaling scheme based on the global 0.5 ° climate dataset released by CRU and the global high-resolution climate dataset released by WorldClim. In addition, 496 independent meteorological observation point data are used for verification, and the verification results are reliable. This data set covers the main land areas in China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), excluding islands and reefs in the South China Sea. In order to facilitate storage, the data are all int16 type and stored in nc files, with precipitation units of 0.1mm. NC data can be mapped using ArcMAP software; Matlab software can also be used for extraction processing. Matlab has released the function to read and store nc files. The read function is ncread, and switch to the nc file storage folder. The statement is expressed as: ncread ('XXX.nc ',' var ', [i j t], [leni lenj lent]), where XXX.nc is the file name, and is the string required' '; Var is from XXX The variable name read in NC. If it is a string, '' is required; i. J and t are the starting row, column and time of the read data respectively, and leni, lenj and lent i are the length of the read data in the row, column and time dimensions respectively. In this way, this function can be used to read in any region and any time period in the study area. There are many commands about NC data in the help of Matlab, which can be viewed. WGS84 is recommended for data coordinate system.

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  • China's second glacier inventory uses the high-resolution Landsat TM/ETM+ remote sensing satellite data as the main glacier boundary data source and extracts the data source with the latest global digital elevation model, SRTM V4, as the glacier attribute, using the current international ratio threshold segmentation method to extract the glacier boundary in bare ice areas. The ice ridge extraction algorithm is developed to extract the glacier ice ridge, and it is used for the segmentation of a single glacier. At the same time, the international general algorithm is used to calculate the glacier attributes, so that the vector data and attribute data that contain the glacier information of the main glacier regions in west China are obtained. Compared with some field GPS field measurement data and higher resolution remote sensing images (such as from QuickBird and WorldView), the glacial vector data in the second glacier inventory data set of China have higher positioning accuracy and can meet the requirements for glacial data in national land, water conservancy, transportation, environment and other fields. Glacier inventory attributes: Glc_Name, Drng_Code, FCGI_ID, GLIMS_ID, Mtn_Name, Pref_Name, Glc_Long, Glc_Lati, Glc_Area, Abs_Accu, Rel_Accu, Deb_Area, Deb_A_Accu, Deb_R_Accu, Glc_Vol_A, Glc_Vol_B, Max_Elev, Min_Elev, Mean_Elev, MA_Elev, Mean_Slp, Mean_Asp, Prm_Image, Aux_Image, Rep_Date, Elev_Src, Elev_Date, Compiler, Verifier. For a detailed data description, please refer to the second glacier inventory data description.

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  • Soil bulk density, porosity, water content, water characteristic curve, saturated hydraulic conductivity, particle analysis, infiltration rate, and sampling point location information in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin. 1. The data is for 2014 supplementary sampling for 2012, using the ring knife to take the original soil; 2. The soil bulk density is the dry bulk density of the soil and is measured by the drying method. The original ring-shaped soil sample collected in the field was thermostated at 105 ° C for 24 hours in an oven, and the soil dry weight was divided by the soil volume (100 cubic centimeters) , unit: g/cm 3 . 3. Soil porosity is obtained according to the relationship between soil bulk density and soil porosity; 4. Soil infiltration analysis data set, the data is the field experimental measurement data from 2013 to 2014. 5. The infiltration data is measured by “MINI DISK PORTABLE TENSION INFILTROMETER”, and the approximate saturated hydraulic conductivity under a certain negative pressure is obtained. 6. Soil particle size data was measured at the Grain Granulation Laboratory of the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education of Lanzhou University. The measuring instrument is a Malvern laser particle size analyzer MS2000. 7. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is measured according to the enamel hair self-made instrument of Yi Yanli (2009). The Marioot bottle was used to maintain the head during the experiment; at the same time, the Ks measured at the time was converted to the Ks value at 10 °C for analysis and calculation. 8. Soil water content data is measured using ECH2O, including 5 layers of soil water content and soil temperature. 9. The water characteristic curve is measured by the centrifuge method: the undisturbed soil of the ring cutter collected in the field is placed in a centrifuge, and each of the speeds is measured at 0, 310, 980, 1700, 2190, 2770, 3100, 5370, 6930, 8200, 11600. The secondary rotor weight is obtained.

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  • The distribution of lakes in space and its change over time are closely related to agricultural, environmental and ecological issues, and are critical factors for human socio-economic development. In the past decades, satellite based remote sensing has been developed rapidly to provide essential data sources for monitoring temporal lakes dynamics with its advantage of rapidness, wide coverage, and lower cost. This dataset was produced from Landsat images using the automated water detection method (Feng et al, 2015). We collected 96,278 Landsat images (about 25 terabytes) that acquired since 2000 with less than 80% cloud contamination in the arid region of central Asia and Tibetan Plateau. Water is detected in each of the image and then aggregated to monthly temporal resolution by taking advantage of the high-performance processing capability and large data storage provided by Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) at University of Maryland. The results are validated systematically and quantitatively using manually interpreted dataset, which consists of a set of locations collected by a stratified random sampling strategy to effectively represent different spatial-temporal distributions in the region. The validation suggests high accuracy of the results (overall accuracy: 99.45(±0.59); user accuracy: 85.37%±(3.74); produce accuracy: 98.17(±1.05)).

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  • Mean annual ground temperature (MAGT) at a depth of zero annual amplitude and permafrost thermal stability type are fundamental importance for engineering planning and design, ecosystem management in permafrost region. This dataset is produced by integrating remotely sensed freezing degree-days and thawing degree-days, snow cover days, leaf area index, soil bulk density, high-accuracy soil moisture data, and in situ MAGT measurements from 237 boreholes for the 2010s (2005-2015) on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) by using an ensemble learning method that employs a support vector regression (SVR) model based on distance-blocked resampling training data with 200 repetitions. Validation of the new permafrost map indicates that it is probably the most accurate of all available maps at present. The RMSE of MAGT is approximately 0.75 °C and the bias is approximately 0.01 °C. This map shows that the total area of permafrost on the TP is approximately 115.02 (105.47-129.59) *104 km2. The areas corresponding to the very stable, stable, semi-stable, transitional, and unstable types are 0.86*104 km2, 9.62*104 km2, 38.45*104 km2, 42.29*104 km2, and 23.80*104 km2, respectively. This new dataset is available for evaluate the permafrost change in the future on the TP as a baseline. More details can be found in Ran et al., (2020) that published at Science China Earth Sciences.

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