Riverine nitrogen loss in the Tibetan Plateau and potential impacts of climate change

Yindong Tong; Long Chen; Jie Chi; Gengchong Zhen; Qianggong Zhang; Ruonan Wang; Ruihua Yao; Wei Zhang; Xuejun Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.099

Riverine nitrogen loss in the Tibetan Plateau and potential impacts of climate change

Sci Total Environ. 2016 May 15:553:276-284. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.099. Epub 2016 Feb 27.

Authors

Yindong Tong¹, Long Chen², Jie Chi³, Gengchong Zhen⁴, Qianggong Zhang⁵, Ruonan Wang⁶, Ruihua Yao⁷, Wei Zhang⁸, Xuejun Wang⁹

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Ministry of Education Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; China-Australia Centre for Sustainable Urban Development, Tianjin 300072, China.
² Ministry of Education Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
⁴ School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁶ Chengdu Environmental Monitoring Center, Chengdu, Sichuan 610072, China.
⁷ Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, Beijing 100012, China.
⁸ School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁹ Ministry of Education Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 26925738
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.099

Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has been the subject of study on water circulation and global climate change. Given the environmental processes related to water outflows, there could be massive nutrient losses in the land surface of TP. In this study, we analyzed the nitrogen discharges of the major rivers flowing out of the TP based on the 5-year monitoring data. According to our calculation, the majority of nitrogen outflows were discharged through the upper Yangtze River and upper Huanghe River, representing ~29% and ~17% of total riverine outflows, respectively. In the entire nitrogen deficit in TP land surface, about 2.7 × 10(5)Mg/year was lost through riverine discharges. Due to the global warming, the changes of hydrologic processes in TP would possibly accelerate the riverine nitrogen outflows in the future.

Keywords: Climate change; Nitrogen balance; Riverine outflows; Tibetan Plateau.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't