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Arid Land Geography ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (11): 1805-1815.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2024.177

• The Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Water level changes and attribution of typical lakes on the northern slope of Kunlun Mountains from 2003 to 2022

LIU Yuting1(), CHEN Yaning2(), ZHU Chenggang2, ZHANG Shuhua3, HUANG Xinyao1   

  1. 1. School of Life and Geography, Kashi University/Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Ecology of Pamirs Plateau in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Kashi 844000, Xinjiang, China
    2. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, China
    3. College of Geomatics, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710000, Shaanxi, China
  • Received:2024-03-18 Revised:2024-05-11 Online:2024-11-25 Published:2024-12-03
  • Contact: CHEN Yaning E-mail:liuyuting@ksu.edu.cn;chenyn@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Abstract:

Changes in water level serve as crucial indicators of dynamic variations in lake systems, significantly impacting lake ecological environments and water resource management. This study employs data from ICESat-1, CryoSat-2, EnviSat, and ICESat-2 multi-source altimetry satellites to analyze water levels of Aksai Chin Lake, Ayagkumu Lake, Aqqikkol Lake, Jingyu Lake, Changhong Lake, and Surigh Yilganing Kol Lake on the northern slope of Kunlun Mountains. It also incorporates data on lake watershed areas, temperature, precipitation, and land use from 2003 to 2022. Quantitative analyses of lake water level changes were conducted using trend analysis, Mann-Kendall test, Pearson correlation, and other methods to explore the influencing mechanisms of these changes. The findings are as follows: (1) The accuracy of water levels derived from multiple altimetry satellites was validated against the water level dataset, showing consistent trends and passing the significance F test in all correlation analyses. (2) Over the past 20 years, water levels of the lakes, except for Surigh Yilganing Kol Lake, have shown a significant upward trend, with Changhong Lake exhibiting the highest rate of increase at 0.71 m·a-1, while Aksai Chin Lake has the lowest rate of increase at 0.29 m·a-1. (3) Climatic factors differ significantly across lake catchment areas, with temperatures showing a consistent rising trend and precipitation varying across regions. A positive correlation exists between water levels and precipitation for Aqqikkol Lake, Ayagkumu Lake, and Jingyu Lake, while water levels of typical lakes show a positive correlation with temperature, except for Surigh Yilganing Kol Lake. This study leverages data from multiple altimetry satellites to analyze lake water level changes, aiming to elucidate the hydrological variations of lakes on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains. The findings provide a scientific basis for the management of lake ecological environments.

Key words: satellite altimetry, lake water level, temperature, precipitation, land use, northern slope of Kunlun Mountains