Elsevier

Earth-Science Reviews

Contempo climate and hydrological changes in a mount–bowl system in Xinjiang, Mainland china

Under a Artistic Commons license

Open admission

Abstract

Xinjiang, China, is a representative arid region in Cardinal Asia that is characterized by a unique mountain–bowl construction and delicate mount–oasis–desert ecosystems. Climate warming directly affects hydrological changes and may threaten water availability and ecological security in Xinjiang (XJ). In this written report, nosotros conducted a systematic review of recent climatic changes and their effects on hydrological system changes in XJ. The XJ climate has experienced meaning warming and moistening during 1961–2018, and the most dramatic increase has occurred since the mid-1980s. Climate extremes have become increasingly notable in the warming climate, resulting in increases in atmospheric precipitation and warm extremes and decreases in common cold extremes. Moreover, accelerated local precipitation recycling has been triggered by an increasingly warm–moisture climate and enhanced evaporation. The accelerated climate warming in XJ has caused significant glacier shrinkage, decreased snow cover and snowfall fraction, aggravated meteorological drought, increased river runoff, and lake expansion. The climate-related changes in the hydrological regimes may have agin ecological effects, including increased soil wet loss, reduced growing season vegetation growth, and shrinkage of the desert–oasis ecotone. Despite many achievements in climate and hydrological modify research in XJ, we suggest that there is an urgent demand to improve the comprehensive ground observation network, reproduce climate variability findings using multiple datasets, reveal the underlying physical mechanisms, and appraise the hydro-meteorological disaster risks of a warming climate in the future. In addition, a conceptual framework of the climate and hydrological changes in mountain–basin organization proposed, which is expected to contribute to the understanding of arid region hydrology in the future.

Keyword

Mountain–basin system

Climate warming

Hydrologic upshot

Barren regions

Endorheic basins

Xinjiang

Cited by (0)

© 2022 The Authors. Published past Elsevier B.V.