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The local or overall mass balance of a glacier is significantly influenced by the spatial heterogeneity of its overlying debris thickness. Accurately estimating the debris thickness of glaciers is essential for understanding their hydrological processes and the impact of climate change. This study focuses on the Koxkar Glacier in the Tian Shan Mountains, using debris thickness data to compare the accuracy of three commonly used approaches for estimating the spatial distribution of debris thickness. The three measurement approaches include two empirical relationships between the land surface temperature (LST) and debris thickness approaches, empirical relationship approach 1 and empirical relationship approach 2, and the energy balance of debris approach. The analysis also explores the potential influence of topographic factors on the debris distribution. By incorporating temperature data from the debris profiles, this study examines the applicability of each approach and identifies areas for possible improvement. The results indicate that (1) all three debris thickness estimation approaches effectively capture the distribution characteristics of glacial debris, although empirical relationship approach 2 outperforms the others in describing the spatial patterns; (2) the accuracy of each approach varies depending on the debris thickness, with the energy balance of debris approach being most accurate for debris less than 50 cm thick, while empirical relationship approach 1 performs better for debris thicker than 50 cm and empirical relationship approach 2 demonstrates the highest overall accuracy; and (3) topographic factors, particularly the elevation, significantly influence the accuracy of debris thickness estimates. Furthermore, the empirical relationships between the LST and debris thickness require field data and focus solely on the surface temperature, neglecting other influencing factors. The energy balance of debris approach is constrained by its linear assumption of the temperature profile, which is only valid within a specific range of debris thickness; beyond this range, it significantly underestimates the values. These findings provide evidence-based support for improving remote-sensing methods for debris thickness estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retreat of glaciers has altered hydrological processes in cryospheric regions and affects water resources at the basin scale. It is necessary to elucidate the contributions of environmental changes to evapotranspiration (ET) variation in cryospheric-dominated regions. Considering the upper reach of the Shule River Basin as a typical cryospheric-dominated watershed, an extended Budyko framework addressing glacier change was constructed and applied to investigate the sensitivity and contribution of changes in environmental variables to ET variation. The annual ET showed a significant upward trend of 1.158 mm yr−1 during 1982–2015 in the study area. ET was found to be the most sensitive to precipitation (P), followed by the controlling parameter (w), which reflects the integrated effects of landscape alterations, potential evapotranspiration (ET0), and glacier change (∆W). The increase in P was the dominant factor influencing the increase in ET, with a contribution of 112.64%, while the decrease in w largely offset its effect. The contributions of P and ET0 to ET change decreased, whereas that of w increased when considering glaciers using the extended Budyko framework. The change in glaciers played a clear role in ET change and hydrological processes, which cannot be ignored in cryospheric watersheds. These findings are helpful for better understanding changes in water resources in cryospheric regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies attribute the glacier mass balance within High Mountain Asia (HMA) to climate change, ignoring the influence of its complex terrain. Knowledge of the influence of this complex terrain is crucial for understanding the spatial variability in its mass balance. However, there is a lack of any systematic assessment of this influence across HMA. Therefore, in this study, we used the glacier outlines and raster data (SRTM DEM, slope and aspect) to calculate the topographic shading of all 97,965 glaciers within HMA during the ablation period, which is regarded as a major index of the influence of complex terrain on the mass balance. The results showed that 27.19% of HMA glacier area was subjected to topographic shading, and regional differences were significant with respect to both their altitudinal and spatial distributions. The topographic shading contributed to the protection of the smallest glaciers from solar illumination. Furthermore, we found a significant correlation between the topographic shading and mass balance in these small north-facing glaciers. However, these small glaciers were most prevalent in the north-facing orientation, especially in West Kunlun, East Kunlun, Inner Tibet Plateau and Qilian Shan, where shading was found to increase with decreases in the glacier area. This indicates that complex terrain can affect the spatial distribution of the mass balance by altering the solar illumination pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A VIC-CAS model, coupled with glacier melting and evolution schemes, was developed. • Good model performances were obtained through a two-stage calibration strategy. • We systematically assessed the runoff and glacier responses to future climate change. • Increased rainfall runoff is the dominant cause of the future streamflow increase. Analyzing the impacts of climate change on hydrology and future projections of water supplies is fundamental for the efficient management and planning of water resources in large river systems on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), which is known as the "water tower of Asia." However, large uncertainties remain in the projections of streamflow and glaciers in these cryospheric catchments due to great uncertainties in climate change projection and modeling processes. In this work, we developed an extended Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) macroscale hydrological model (named VIC-CAS), which was coupled with glacier melting and glacier evolution schemes. A two-stage calibration procedure that used glacier inventory data and the observed streamflow was adopted to derive the model parameters. The calibrated VIC-CAS model was then used to assess the future change in glaciers and runoff using downscaled climate model data in the upstream regimes of the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, and Brahmaputra rivers on the TP. The results indicated that both temperature and precipitation were projected to increase, resulting in a greater than 50% decline of the glacier area by the end of the 21st century in the five catchments. Glacier runoff was already beyond its tipping point at the beginning of the 21st century with a greater than 20% loss of the glacier area except in the upstream of the Yangtze River, where glacier runoff was projected to decrease after the 2030 s. Annual streamflow was projected to increase significantly as a result of increased rainfall-induced runoff, compensating for the reduced glacier/snow melt water in the five major upstream river basins. The increasing rate of warm season streamflow was clearly less than that of annual runoff. A negative trend in warm season streamflow was expected if precipitation did not sufficiently increase. The annual hydrograph remained largely unchanged, except in the upstream of the Yellow River, where peak streamflow was predicted to occur 1 month earlier because of the earlier snowmelt and greater rainfall/precipitation ratio from May to June. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glacier meltwater change in the north‐eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau is greatly important for the projection of the impact of future climate change on local water resource management. Although the glaciated area is only approximately 4% of the Upper Reach of the Shule River Basin (URSRB), the average glacier meltwater contribution to river run‐off was approximately 23.6% during the periods 1971/1972 to 2012/2013. A new glacier melting module coupled with the macroscale hydrologic Variable Infiltration Capacity model (VIC‐CAS) was adopted to simulate and project changes in the glacier meltwater and river run‐off of the URSRB forced by downscaled output of the BCC‐CSM1.1(m), CANESM2, GFDL‐CM3, and IPSL‐CM5A‐MR models. Comparisons between the observed and simulated river run‐offs and glacier area changes during the periods 2000/2001, 2004/2006, 2008/2009, and 2012/2013 suggest that the simulation is reasonable. Due to increases in precipitation, the annual total run‐off is projected to increase by approximately 2.58–2.73 × 108 m3 in the 2050s and 0.28–1.87 × 108 m3 in the 2100s compared with run‐off in the 2010s based on the RCP2.6 (low greenhouse gas emission) and RCP4.5 (moderate greenhouse gas emission) scenarios, respectively. The contribution of glacier meltwater to river run‐off will more likely decrease to approximately 10% and less than 5% during the 2050s and 2100s, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how explicit consideration of topographic information influences hydrological model performance and upscaling in glacier dominated catchments remains underexplored. In this study, the Urumqi glacier no. 1 catchment in northwest China, with 52% of the area covered by glaciers, was selected as study site. A conceptual glacier-hydrological model was developed and tested to systematically, simultaneously, and robustly reproduce the hydrograph, separate the discharge into contributions from glacier and nonglacier parts of the catchment, and establish estimates of the annual glacier mass balance, the annual equilibrium line altitude, and the daily catchment snow water equivalent. This was done by extending and adapting a recently proposed landscape-based semidistributed conceptual hydrological model (FLEX-Topo) to represent glacier and snowmelt processes. The adapted model, FLEXG, allows to explicitly account for the influence of topography, that is, elevation and aspect, on the distribution of temperature and precipitation and thus on melt dynamics. It is shown that the model can not only reproduce long-term runoff observations but also variations in glacier and snow cover. Furthermore, FLEXG was successfully transferred and up-scaled to a larger catchment exclusively by adjusting the areal proportions of elevation and aspect without the need for further calibration. This underlines the value of topographic information to meaningfully represent the dominant hydrological processes in the region and is further exacerbated by comparing the model to a model formulation that does not account for differences in aspect (FLEXG,nA) and which, in spite of satisfactorily reproducing the observed hydrograph, does not capture the influence of spatial variability of snow and ice, which as a consequence reduces model transferability. This highlights the importance of accounting for topography and landscape heterogeneity in conceptual hydrological models in mountainous and snow-, and glacier-dominated regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considered solute fluxes and the transient CO2 drawdown process in the highly glacierized Koxkar basin in Central Eurasia, around 70.20% of which is covered by present-day ice. From 27 June to 30 September 2011, the total runoff depth was 671.70 mm, which yielded crustal solute fluxes of 213.65 ± 10.05 kg·(km2·d)−1 that accounted for 53.59% of the total solute flux of the river water. The solute fluxes derived directly from ice meltwater and precipitation were 70.02 ± 4.68 and 16.57 ± 1.13 kg·(km2·d)−1, respectively, which accounted for 17.57% and 4.16% of the total solute flux. The carbonation and hydrolysis of carbonate and feldspar minerals occurred because of the presence of H+, supplied by sulfide oxidation or CO2 drawdown. While the H+ yielded by sulfide oxidation was insufficient for hydrochemical reactions, atmospheric CO2 dissolved in the water generated H+ that drove follow-up reactions. The total transient drawdown of CO2 was 804.83 t C, which generated 39.61% of the total HCO3- and 24.68% of the river water solute. Transient drawdown of CO2 in the glacier region indicated that change of glacial area and volume could influence atmospheric CO2 concentration and be important in the long-term global CO2 cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Runoff increased significantly during 1970–2015; a tipping point appeared in 1998 in the upper Shule River Basin on the Tibetan Plateau. • An extended Budyko framework was conducted to quantify the impacts of glaciers and permafrost degradation on runoff change. • Glacier shrinkage and permafrost degradation contributed to approximately 8% and 24.8% runoff increase, respectively. Glacier shrinkage and permafrost degradation have significantly altered the hydrological processes in cryospheric regions through releasing water and absorbing more energy from the ground. Considering the upper Shule River Basin (USRB) as a typical cryospheric-dominated watershed on the Tibetan Plateau, an extended Budyko framework considering glacier shrinkage and permafrost degradation was constructed to investigate their contributions to runoff change. Runoff exhibited a significant increasing trend during 1970–2015, with a tipping point appearing around 1998. Thus, 1970–1998 and 1999–2015 were identified as the baseline and changing periods, respectively. During the two periods, runoff was the most sensitive to landscape alteration, followed by precipitation. The increase in precipitation contributed 93.1 % to the increase in runoff, while its effect was partially offset by the negative contribution of potential evapotranspiration (−3.9 %). Glacier shrinkage and permafrost degradation accounted for a 8.0 % and 24.8 % increase in runoff, respectively. Part of these increases were offset by changes in other landscape factors (−22.0 %). Our study elucidates the impacts of glacier shrinkage and permafrost degradation on hydrological processes in cryospheric basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]