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Impact of climate change on water level fluctuation of Issyk-Kul Lake

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Abstract

We analyzed climatic and hydrologic data collected from the end of the nineteenth century to the present time from weather stations and hydro posts in the Teskei Ala Too and Kungei Ala Too mountain sites, around Issyk-Kul Lake, Kyrgyzstan, and Central Asia. These databases showed that the water level of Issyk-Kul Lake varied along with changes in climate indicators. Fluctuations in the Issyk-Kul Lake surface level were generated by an unbalanced water budget (volume) as a result of meteorological and hydrological processes, such as precipitation, evaporation, infiltration, and inflow and outflow conditions of rivers that fall into this lake. The impacts of each of these factors on the lake’s water balance are different, and the process usually has long temporal scales and effects. The quantitative measures of these factors and their actions are very important to considering the changes in water level of the lake surface. The data from the last 130 years indicated that the temperature in Issyk-Kul has changed over the years from 1880 to 2010. According to comprehensive analyses of these data, the water level has changed under the effects of global warming in this basin. The analysis of the weather station database over the last 130 years showed that approximately every 30 years there was an abrupt increase in air temperature during the hottest summer months that gradually decreased over that three decade cycle. These periods indicated an abrupt change in air temperature of 1–1.5 °C by the end of each cycle. And any change in air temperature influenced the amount of river runoff, glacier melt, and lake volume in this region. Depending on the interaction between water volume and air temperature and a reduction in irrigation, the lake’s water level also rose.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1138301) and Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-EW-308 and KZCX2-YW-GJ04), as well as by the West Doctor Project of West Light Foundation of The Chinese Academy of Sciences (XBBS201106).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Urumqi, 830011, Xinjiang, China

    Abdyzhapar uulu Salamat, Jilili Abuduwaili & Nargiza Shaidyldaeva

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  1. Abdyzhapar uulu Salamat
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  2. Jilili Abuduwaili
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  3. Nargiza Shaidyldaeva
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Correspondence to Jilili Abuduwaili.

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Salamat, A.u., Abuduwaili, J. & Shaidyldaeva, N. Impact of climate change on water level fluctuation of Issyk-Kul Lake. Arab J Geosci 8, 5361–5371 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-014-1516-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-014-1516-6

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