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Can δ18O help indicate the causes of recent lake area expansion on the western Tibetan Plateau? A case study from Aweng Co

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Abstract

Glacier-fed lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) have undergone rapid expansions since the late 1990s, concurrent with the changing climate. However, the dominant cause(s) of lake area increases is still debated. To identify the drivers of lake expansion, we studied Aweng Co, a glacier-fed lake in the western TP, where surface area has increased (0.74 km2 year−1) since the late 1970s and most rapidly (0.998 km2 year−1) since the late 1990s. A water balance model was used to clarify the reasons for increased lake water volume, supported by stable isotope hydrology and the δ18O change recorded in recent sediments. Results showed that glacial meltwater probably had the biggest impact on changes in Aweng Co lake level in recent decades, but that precipitation was also an important contributor. Our study shows that δ18O of carbonate (δ18Ocarb) has great potential for indicating source changes of water supply in such lakes, but there is a need to be cautious when interpreting δ18Ocarb due to the influence of multiple hydrological factors, which can change in dominance over time.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 41771212) and Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2017-it81). We would like to thank Juzhi Hou, Mingda Wang, Yaping Yang and Erlei Zhu for assisting the field work. We also thank Melanie Leng for her constructive suggestions in improving the quality of the manuscript, and Xian Wu for providing the interpolated meteorological data in the catchment. We thank Thomas J. Whitmore, Steffen Mischke and two anonymous reviewers for detailed comments which improved the manuscript. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yuzhi Zhang & Jiawu Zhang

  2. School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Matthew Jones, Suzanne McGowan & Sarah Metcalfe

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  1. Yuzhi Zhang
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Correspondence to Jiawu Zhang.

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Zhang, Y., Jones, M., Zhang, J. et al. Can δ18O help indicate the causes of recent lake area expansion on the western Tibetan Plateau? A case study from Aweng Co. J Paleolimnol 65, 169–180 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-020-00158-6

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