1.Lake volume changes on the Tibetan Plateau during 1976–2020 (>1 km2) v2.0

We comprehensively estimated water volume changes for 1132 lakes larger than 1 km2. Overall, the water mass stored in the lakes increased by 169.7±15.1 Gt (3.9±0.4 Gt yr-1) between 1976 and 2019, mainly in the Inner-TP (157.6±11.6 or 3.7±0.3 Gt yr-1). A substantial increase in mass occurred between 1995 and 2019 (214.9±12.7 Gt or 9.0±0.5 Gt yr-1), following a period of decrease (-45.2±8.2 Gt or -2.4±0.4 Gt yr-1) prior to 1995. A slowdown in the rate of water mass increase occurred between 2010 and 2015 (23.1±6.5 Gt or 4.6±1.3 Gt yr-1), followed again by a high value between 2015 and 2019 (65.7±6.7 Gt or 16.4±1.7 Gt yr-1). The increased lake-water mass occurred predominately in glacier-fed lakes (127.1±14.3 Gt) in contrast to non-glacier-fed lakes (42.6±4.9 Gt), and in endorheic lakes (161.9±14.0 Gt) against exorheic lakes (7.8±5.8 Gt) over 1976−2019.

ZHANG Guoqing

   POLES TPDC

doi: 10.11888/Hydro.tpdc.271169 11047 1046 Open Access 2022-04-15