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干旱区地理 ›› 2018, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 66-73.

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Response of glacier in the Bukatage Mountains to climate change from 1990 to 2015

HU Fan-sheng, YANG Tai-bao, JI Qin, LI Hong-rong, WANG Jing   

  1. College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Institution of Glaciers and Ecology, Lanzhou 730000
  • Received:2017-08-04 Revised:2017-10-24 Online:2018-01-25

Abstract: Based on Landsat images,this paper extracted glacier borders in the Bukatage Mountains in 1990,2000,2010,and 2015 respectively by using object-oriented classification and geographic information technology to analyze the glacier changes in recent 25 years.This paper also investigated the relationship between the glacier retreat and climate changes based on the data collected by 49 meteorological stations around the study area by simulating the climate changes using annual precipitation and summer mean temperature.The results showed that generally the summer mean temperature and annual precipitation played a decisive role for glacier melting.The total glacier area was decreased by an overall loss of 7.28 km2,the equivalent of an annual retreat rate as 0.29 km2·a-1.The rate of the glacier retreat appeared slightly differently over the course with a bigger rate during the period from 1990 to 2000,a big rate from 2000 to 2010 and a small rate from 2010 to 2015.Moreover,the retreat rate of glacier was showed differently in various orientation.The southern slope valley part of the glacier,the northern slope part and the middle flat part formed the list in descending order of the retreat rate.To further study glacier changes in the Bukatage Mountains,this paper also studied the glacier surface flow velocity with two typical glaciers.The results showed that the glacier surface flow velocity was gradually decreased from the middle streamline to both its lateral ridges and the glacier tongue,which is conformant to the general rule of glacier surface velocity.Moreover,the glacier surface velocity differed from each other based on glacier type.Temperature variation and terrain played an important role in the glacier surface flow velocity.It is acknowledged that the glacier changes were mainly affected by the rising summer temperature and less precipitation besides the effects caused by the terrain and the glacier scale of itself.

Key words: Bukatage Mountains, climate changes, object-oriented classification, glacier scale, glacier surface flow velocity

CLC Number: 

  • P343.6