Non-consistent changes and drivers of water-sediment fluxes in the yarlung tsangpo river basin of the Tibetan plateau

IF 7.3 1区 农林科学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Dongmei Zhao , Donghong Xiong , Kunlong He , Baojun Zhang , Fan Zhang , Han Wu , Haiyan Fang , Wenduo Zhang , Changyan Zhou , Xiaodan Wang
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Variations in water-sediment fluxes and their driving mechanisms are critical to riverine ecosystems and management. Yet, current estimates of the response of water and sediment flux remain insufficiently quantified, limited by the scarcity of long-term hydrological records in the alpine regions. Here, we leverage decadal observations in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin, to investigate the dynamic shifts in water-sediment fluxes from 1955 to 2020 and elucidate their linkage to a warming and wetting climate, snowmelt, and environmental greening (including natural- and human-induced greening) in the different spatial and temporal scale. Major drivers of shifts in water-sediment flux are identified by using wavelet coherence and variance partitioning of redundancy analysis. The results highlight that observational data from four gauging stations (i.e., Lhaze, Nugesha, Yangcun, and Nuxia) uncover a substantial decrease in Suspended Sediment Load (SSL) (Nuxia: 12.302 × 104 t/yr, P < 0.05) in the downstream with consistently increasing runoff and precipitation. Especially during the flood season (July to September), the dam/reservoir construction caused a median decrease in SSL. Dropping sediment offsets the slightly rising SSLs in the midstream and upstream (upper Yangcun: 14.8 × 104 t/yr, P > 0.05). Up to 80% of sediment was sourced from the middle stretch between Lhaze and Nugesha despite it supplied with lower regional runoff generation. Nevertheless, the downstream zone experienced the transition from a sediment source to a deposition area around 1998. We further found the negative and positive effects between water-sediment fluxes and revegetation, and demonstrated that employing NDVI to evaluate human-induced vegetation greening might overestimate the impact of ecological restoration programs on water-sediment fluxes. Attribution analysis indicates that precipitation was not the primary contributor to runoff and SSL changes in all stretches of the basin. In the upstream, temperature and associated snowmelt can be more important than precipitation. Compared to before 1998, precipitation is still the primary driver of change in downstream runoff change after 1998, whilst vegetation restoration, rather than precipitation, dominates the reduction in downstream SSL. These findings have far-reaching significance for watershed managers and decision-makers in terms of developing effective strategies for water resources and soil erosion control.

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来源期刊
International Soil and Water Conservation Research
International Soil and Water Conservation Research Agricultural and Biological Sciences-Agronomy and Crop Science
CiteScore
12.00
自引率
3.10%
发文量
171
审稿时长
49 days
期刊介绍: The International Soil and Water Conservation Research (ISWCR), the official journal of World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC) http://www.waswac.org, is a multidisciplinary journal of soil and water conservation research, practice, policy, and perspectives. It aims to disseminate new knowledge and promote the practice of soil and water conservation. The scope of International Soil and Water Conservation Research includes research, strategies, and technologies for prediction, prevention, and protection of soil and water resources. It deals with identification, characterization, and modeling; dynamic monitoring and evaluation; assessment and management of conservation practice and creation and implementation of quality standards. Examples of appropriate topical areas include (but are not limited to): • Conservation models, tools, and technologies • Conservation agricultural • Soil health resources, indicators, assessment, and management • Land degradation • Sustainable development • Soil erosion and its control • Soil erosion processes • Water resources assessment and management • Watershed management • Soil erosion models • Literature review on topics related soil and water conservation research
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