Mass Change of Glaciers in Muztag Ata-Kongur Tagh, Eastern Pamir, China from 1971/76 to 2013/14 as Derived from Remote Sensing Data

Zhen Zhang; Shiyin Liu; Junfeng Wei; Junli Xu; Wanqin Guo; Weijia Bao; Zongli Jiang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147327

Mass Change of Glaciers in Muztag Ata-Kongur Tagh, Eastern Pamir, China from 1971/76 to 2013/14 as Derived from Remote Sensing Data

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 20;11(1):e0147327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147327. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Zhen Zhang^{1

2}, Shiyin Liu¹, Junfeng Wei³, Junli Xu^{1

2}, Wanqin Guo¹, Weijia Bao^{1

2}, Zongli Jiang^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan, China.
⁴ Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Coal Resources Clean-Utilization and Mine Environment Protection, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan, China.

Abstract

The assessment of glacier mass budget is crucial for assessing water reserves stored in glaciers. Derived glacier mass changes in the Muztag Ata and Kongur Tagh (MAKT) region in the eastern Pamir, northwestern China, is helpful in improving our knowledge of the dynamics of glaciers under a changing climate in High Mountain Asia. Here, glacier area and mass changes derived from remote sensing data are investigated for the period 1971/76-2013/14 for glaciers in MAKT. We have used ASTER images (2013/14), Cartosat-1 (2014) and Landsat, SRTM (Shuttle Radar Terrain Mission) digital elevation model (DEM) (2000), topographic maps (1971/76) and the first and second Chinese glacier inventories (CGIs). Our results indicated that the glacier area of MAKT decreased from 1018.3 ± 12.99 km(2) in 1971/76 to 999.2 ± 31.22 km(2) in 2014 (-1.9 ± 0.2%). Weak area shrinkage of glaciers by 2.5 ± 0.5 km(2) (0.2 ± 0.1%) happened after 2000 and the period 2009-2014 even saw a slight expansion by 0.5 ± 0.1 km(2) (0.1 ± 0.0%). The glaciers in this region have experienced an overall loss of -6.99 ± 0.80 km(3) in ice volume or -0.15 ± 0.12 m water equivalent (w.e.) a-1 from 1971/76 to 2013/14. The mass budget of MAKT was -0.19 ± 0.19 m w.e. a-1 for the period ~1971/76-1999 and -0.14 ± 0.24 m w.e. a-1 during 1999-2013/2014. Similar to previous studies, there has been little mass change in the Pamir over recent decades despite such uncertainties. Glacier mass change showed spatial and temporal heterogeneity, with strong mass loss on debris-covered glaciers with an average of -0.32 ± 0.12 m w.e. a-1 from the 1970s to 2013/14.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Climate Change
Ice Cover / chemistry*
Models, Theoretical*
Remote Sensing Technology / methods*
Time Factors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the fundamental program from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) (Grant No. 2013FY111400), the Key Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-12-1), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41190084 and 41471067).