Terrestrial water storage over the Tibetan Plateau is projected to sustain large net declines by 2060. Excess water losses in the Amu Darya and Indus basins present the most critical threats of water supply shortage in this region. These results could inform adaptation strategies under future climate change.
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References
Brun, F., Berthier, E., Wagnon, P., Kääb, A. & Treichler, D. A spatially resolved estimate of High Mountain Asia glacier mass balances from 2000 to 2016. Nat. Geosci. 10, 668–673 (2017). This paper reports detailed techniques for estimating the change in glacier mass that is an important component of changes in TWS.
Li, X. et al. High-temporal-resolution water level and storage change data sets for lakes on the Tibetan Plateau during 2000–2017 using multiple altimetric missions and Landsat-derived lake shoreline positions. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 11, 1603–1627 (2019). This paper provides a methodology to estimate with high temporal resolution lake storage changes, which account for a large portion of TWS changes in the endorheic Tibetan Plateau.
Pokhrel, Y. et al. Global terrestrial water storage and drought severity under climate change. Nat. Clim. Change 11, 226–233 (2021). Despite excluding much of the Tibetan Plateau, this paper links projected future droughts with TWS at the global scale, providing a global picture of the significance of TWS.
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This is a summary of: Li, X. et al. Climate change threatens terrestrial water storage over the Tibetan Plateau. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01443-0 (2022).
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Water loss over the Tibetan Plateau endangers water supply security for Asian populations. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 785–786 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01451-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01451-0
