With changing climates globally, we see changes in not just average conditions, but also in extreme events, and such events require special attention due to their unpredictable yet significant impact on native biotas. One such event is the formation of a landscape scar at Zonag Lake caused by a climate change‐induced outburst flooding event that occurred on 15 September 2011. During the winter, the scar region became a new birthplace for sandstorms, and since the flooding, remote sensing monitoring shows that between 2011 and 2020, there were 285 sandstorm days (between November and March), relative to none prior. The outburst flooding event and consequential sandstorms threaten the key lambing area of the Tibetan antelope (Chiru), affect the water balance of the Zonag Lake and downstream lakes, and may even impact on the flow in the Yangtze River. Active human intervention may be needed to repair this new desert spit and reverse the slew of consequences which may otherwise lead to significant population declines in one of the major Chiru breeding grounds due to the progressive loss of vegetation productivity across their main breeding area.

中文翻译：

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一次气候变化事件对青藏高原脆弱生态系统的级联影响

随着全球气候的变化，我们不仅看到平均条件的变化，而且还看到了极端事件的变化，由于这些事件对本地生物群产生了不可预测但重要的影响，因此需要特别注意。一个这样的事件是2011年9月15日发生的由气候变化引起的爆发洪水造成的Zonag湖景观疤痕的形成。在冬季，疤痕地区成为沙尘暴的新发源地，自洪水以来，偏远地区感应监测显示，2011年至2020年之间，有285个沙尘暴天（11月至3月），相对于以前没有。爆发的洪水事件和随之而来的沙尘暴威胁着藏羚羊的主要产羔区，影响了Zonag湖和下游湖泊的水平衡，甚至可能影响长江的水流。