Possible recent warming hiatus on the northwestern Tibetan Plateau derived from ice core records.
Many studies have reported enhanced warming trend on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), even during the warming hiatus period. However, most of these studies are based on instrumental data largely collected from the eastern TP, whereas the temperature trend over the extensive northwestern TP remains uncertain due to few meteorological stations. Here we combined the stable isotopic δ(18)O record of an ice core recovered in 2012 from the Chongce glacier with the δ(18)O records of two other ice cores (i.e., Muztagata and Zangser Kangri) in the same region to establish a regional temperature series for the northwestern TP. The reconstruction shows a significant warming trend with a rate of 0.74 ± 0.12 °C/decade for the period 1970-2000, but a decreasing trend from 2001 to 2012. This is consistent with the reduction of warming rates during the recent decade observed at the only two meteorological stations on the northwestern TP, even though most stations on the eastern TP have shown persistent warming during the same period. Our results suggest a possible recent warming hiatus on the northwestern TP. This could have contributed to the relatively stable status of glaciers in this region.
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
Wenling
W
An
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.|CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Shugui
S
Hou
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
Wangbin
W
Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Shuangye
S
Wu
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
Hao
H
Xu
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
Hongxi
H
Pang
College of Population, Resources and Environment, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China.
Yetang
Y
Wang
Geology Department, University of Dayton, Ohio 45469-2364, USA.
Yaping
Y
Liu