RESEARCH LETTER Extreme Lake Level Changes on the Tibetan Plateau 10.1029/2019GL081946 Associated With the 2015/2016 El Niño Key Points: Yanbin Lei1,2 , Yali Zhu3 , Bin Wang4 , Tandong Yao1,2, Kun Yang2,5 , Xiaowen Zhang1, • Dramatic lake shrinkage occurred 6 1 on the TP during the 2015/2016 El Jianqing Zhai , and Ning Ma Niño event, followed by rapid lake 1 expansion in 2016 and 2017 Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, • Considerable drought and lake Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 2CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Beijing, shrinkage on the CTP also occurred China, 3Nansen‐Zhu International Research Centre, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, during historical El Niño events Beijing, China, 4Department of Meteorology and International Pacific Research center, University of Hawai‘iatMānoa, • ENSO may have dramatic impact on 5 6 the hydroclimate of the TP, Honolulu, HI, USA, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, National Climate especially the CTP Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China Supporting Information: • Supporting Information S1 Abstract Although the impact of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is reflected through stable isotopes of precipitation and ice cores, the hydroclimate response of TP lakes to El Niño–Southern Oscillation is seldom investigated. Here we show that significant lake water deficit Correspondence to: occurred on the central TP (CTP) due to a dramatic decrease in precipitation 2016 El Ni/2016 El Niño Y. Lei and Y. Zhu,
[email protected]; event, followed by extreme lake water surplus in 2016 and 2017 over most of the TP (except the
[email protected] eastern CTP).