How does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming?
The active layer thickness (ALT) in permafrost regions regulates hydrological cycles, water sustainability, and ecosystem functions in the cryosphere and is extremely sensitive to climate change. Previous studies often focused on the impacts of rising temperature on the ALT, while the roles of soil...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6c9a |
| _version_ | 1797746978490155008 |
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| author | Fang Ji Linfeng Fan Xingxing Kuang Xin Li Bin Cao Guodong Cheng Yingying Yao Chunmiao Zheng |
| author_facet | Fang Ji Linfeng Fan Xingxing Kuang Xin Li Bin Cao Guodong Cheng Yingying Yao Chunmiao Zheng |
| author_sort | Fang Ji |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The active layer thickness (ALT) in permafrost regions regulates hydrological cycles, water sustainability, and ecosystem functions in the cryosphere and is extremely sensitive to climate change. Previous studies often focused on the impacts of rising temperature on the ALT, while the roles of soil water content and soil granularity have rarely been investigated. Here, we incorporate alterations of soil water contents in soil thermal properties across various soil granularities and assess spatiotemporal ALT dynamics on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). The regional average ALT on the QTP is projected to be nearly 4 m by 2100. Our results indicate that soil wetting decelerates the active layer thickening in response to warming, while latent heat exerts stronger control on ALTs than thermal conductivity does. Under similar warming conditions, active layers thicken faster in coarse soils than in fine soils. An important ramification of this study is that neglecting soil wetting may cause overestimations of active layer thickening on the QTP. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:44:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e69f0cd289b042f4a79e5264c8495727 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:44:32Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-e69f0cd289b042f4a79e5264c84957272023-08-09T15:31:52ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117606401210.1088/1748-9326/ac6c9aHow does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming?Fang Ji0Linfeng Fan1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5776-1738Xingxing Kuang2Xin Li3Bin Cao4Guodong Cheng5Yingying Yao6Chunmiao Zheng7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5839-1305School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin, People’s Republic of China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology , Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaState Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology , Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaState Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology , Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaNational Tibetan Plateau Data Center, State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System Science (LATPES), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaNational Tibetan Plateau Data Center, State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System Science (LATPES), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, People’s Republic of China; Institute of Urban Study, Shanghai Normal University , Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Earth and Environmental Science, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University , Xi’an, People’s Republic of ChinaState Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology , Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; EIT Institute for Advanced Study , Ningbo, ChinaThe active layer thickness (ALT) in permafrost regions regulates hydrological cycles, water sustainability, and ecosystem functions in the cryosphere and is extremely sensitive to climate change. Previous studies often focused on the impacts of rising temperature on the ALT, while the roles of soil water content and soil granularity have rarely been investigated. Here, we incorporate alterations of soil water contents in soil thermal properties across various soil granularities and assess spatiotemporal ALT dynamics on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). The regional average ALT on the QTP is projected to be nearly 4 m by 2100. Our results indicate that soil wetting decelerates the active layer thickening in response to warming, while latent heat exerts stronger control on ALTs than thermal conductivity does. Under similar warming conditions, active layers thicken faster in coarse soils than in fine soils. An important ramification of this study is that neglecting soil wetting may cause overestimations of active layer thickening on the QTP.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6c9apermafrostactive layer thicknesssoil water contentQinghai-Tibet Plateauclimate change |
| spellingShingle | Fang Ji Linfeng Fan Xingxing Kuang Xin Li Bin Cao Guodong Cheng Yingying Yao Chunmiao Zheng How does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming? Environmental Research Letters permafrost active layer thickness soil water content Qinghai-Tibet Plateau climate change |
| title | How does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming? |
| title_full | How does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming? |
| title_fullStr | How does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming? |
| title_full_unstemmed | How does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming? |
| title_short | How does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate warming? |
| title_sort | how does soil water content influence permafrost evolution on the qinghai tibet plateau under climate warming |
| topic | permafrost active layer thickness soil water content Qinghai-Tibet Plateau climate change |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6c9a |
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