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Article-Lanzhou 13 by He Yuanqing, Yao Tandong, Cheng Guodong, and Yang Meixue Climatic records in a firn core from an Alpine temperate glacier on Mt. Yulong, southeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 73000, China. Mt. Yulong is the southernmost glacier-covered area in Asian southwestern monsoon climate. Their total area is 11.61 km2. Eurasia, including China. There are 19 sub-tropical The glaciers resemble a group of flying dragons, giving Mt. Yulong temperate glaciers on the mountain, controlled by the (white dragon) as its name. Many explorers, tourists, poets and scientists have described southwestern monsoon climate. In the summer of 1999, Mt. Yulong from different points of view (Ward, 1924; Wissmann, a firn core, 10.10 m long, extending down to glacier ice, 1937). However, as they were unable to cross the extremely steep was recovered in the accumulation area of the largest mountain slopes and the forested area to the glacier above 4000 m a.s.l., some reported data were not correct. Most of the literature has glacier, Baishui No.1. Periodic variations of climatic focussed on the alpine landscape and the snow scenery, and there are signals above 7.8 m depth were apparent, and net accu- few accounts of the existing glaciers. Ren et al (1957) and Luo and mulation of four years was identified by the annual Yang (1963) first reported the distribution of these glaciers and of the late Pleistocene glacial landforms. To clarify the scale of glacia- oscillations of isotopic and ionic composition. The tion in China during the Quaternary, Xie and Cui (1989) investigated boundaries of annual accumulation were confirmed by the distribution of Quaternary glacial landforms and Ice Ages. Pu higher values of electrical conductivity and pH, and by (1994) produced a glacier inventory of the region. In 1982, a glacio- logical research group, composed of personnel from the Lanzhou dirty refreezing ice layers at the levels of summer sur- Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology, Chinese Academy of Sci- faces. Calculated mean annual net accumulation from ences, and the Geography Department of Lanzhou University, car- 1994/1995 to 1997/1998 was about 900 mm water ried out relatively detailed, but short-term, observations related to equivalent. The amplitude of isotopic variations in the existing glaciers, the snow cover and evidence of historic glacier variations on Mt. Yulong (Li and Su, 1996). Since 1996, Mt. Yulong profile decreased with increasing depth, and isotopic has been developed into a famous glacier park in China, open to homogenization occurred below 7.8 m as a result of tourists from different parts of the world, and it provides excellent meltwater percolation. Variations of δ18O above 7.8 m conditions for glaciological investigations. To meet the requirements of glacial tourism, Zhao et al. (1999) and Zheng (2000) summarized showed an approximate correlation with the winter cli- the features of glacial geomorphology and the course of glaciation matic trend at Lijiang station, 25 km away. Concentra- during the Pleistocene. tions of Ca2+ and Mg2+ were much higher than those of Several advanced methods, such as the analysis of environmen- + + tal records in snow and ice, quantitative analysis of hydrochemical Na and K , indicating that the air masses for precipi- changes, monitoring of recent glacier changes and measurements of tation were mainly from a continental source, and that mass balance, have not been applied in glaciological studies on Mt. the core material accumulated during the winter period. Yulong. In particular, there is a dearth of measured climatic data - + from above 4500 m a.s.l. In order to fill these gaps and to start a new The close correspondence of Cl and Na indicated study of contemporary processes at temperate glaciers in China, 2- their common origin. Very low concentrations of SO4 fieldwork based on ice core drilling was carried out between June - and NO3 suggest that pollution caused by human activ- and July 1999. A shallow core, 10.10 m long, through firn to glacier ities is quite low in the area. The mean annual net accu- ice, was recovered in the accumulation area (4950 ma.s.l.) of the largest glacier on Mt. Yulong, Baishui No.1 (Figure 1). Here we mulation in the core and the estimated ablation indicate focus on the significance of the climatic signals recorded in the core. that the average annual precipitation above the glac- ier’s equilibrium line is 2400–3150 mm, but this needs to be confirmed by long-term observation of mass bal- Climate and glaciers in the study area ance. There are 15 glaciers, with a total area of 10.86 km2, on the eastern slope of Mt. Yulong. The largest one, Baishui No.1, has an area of 1.52 km2 and a length of 2.7 km (Figure 1). The broad, flat accumu- Introduction lation area covers about 1.0 km2. The altitude of the equilibrium line is around 4800 m and the glacier ends at about 4100 m. Abundant Mt. Yulong, located in the Hengduan Mountain Range, north of crevasses in the ablation area reflect the very active glacier motion. Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China (27˚10'–27˚40'N; Mt. Yulong is located in the subtropical zone influenced by the South 100˚07'–100˚10'E), is the southernmost glacierized area in Eurasia. Asia/Indian monsoon, and most precipitation falls between June and There are 19 temperate glaciers on the mountain, controlled by the September, originating from moisture-rich air masses of the south- Episodes, Vol. 24, no. 1 14 Figure 1 Distribution of glaciers on Mt. Yulong (right) and the largest glacier, Baishui No.1, with the 1999 drilling site in the accumulation area (left). eastern summer monsoon. Winter is relatively dry, controlled by the the Laboratory of Ice Core and Cold Region Environment, Chinese winter monsoon of continental origin. Academy of Sciences, and kept in a cold room at -20˚C until δ18O, The measured data of mean annual temperature and precipita- Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-, conductivity and pH values were determined tion at Lijiang meteorological station (2393 ma.s.l.), 25 km from Mt. using a Finngan MAT-252 Spectrometer (precision 0.5‰), Dinex- Yulong, indicate the climatic trends in the region in the past 50 years 100 chromatography (precision 0.1%), 2380 Atomic Absorption (Figure 2). The mean annual temperature is 12.6˚C, with a positive Spectrophotometer (precision 0.2%), conductivity and pH meters. mean temperature in every month. According to the upper air data at The results are shown in Figures 3 and 4. Lijiang station, at 5400 m, the mean annual temperature is about - 7.5°C and the mean temperature is below 0˚C in every month. The Stable oxygen isotopes mean annual temperature around the equilibrium line (4800–5000 ma.s.l.) is -3.3˚C to -4.7˚C (Wang, 1996). Using the 772 mm multi- The distribution of δ18O values in the core (Figure 3) displays peri- year mean precipitation at Lijiang station and a calculated gradient odic variations. These are the largest between the surface and 3.5 m of 103.3 mm/100 m of precipitation, Su and Pu (1996) estimated that depth. The amplitude of the variations decreases from 3.5 m to 7.8 the precipitation above the equilibrium line ranged between 2383 m, below which the δ18O values have been smoothed and no varia- mm and 2590 mm. These climatic conditions make Mt. Yulong the tions are apparent. This resembles the general distribution of δ18O southernmost region for development of glaciers in China. The glac- values in snow and ice in the accumulation areas of temperate glaci- iers on Mt. Yulong are characterized by large amounts of accumula- ers (Oerter et al., 1985; Delmas et al., 1985; Wagenbach, 1989; He, tion and ablation, high temperatures, basal sliding and rapid move- 1993; He and Theakstone, 1994; Raben and Theakstone, 1997, Mat- ment; they are typical sub-tropical temperate glaciers (Li and Su, suoka, 1999). Five net accumulation layers could be identified from 1996). Methods and results On July 2, 1999, a 10.10m long core was drilled at 4950 m in the accumulation area of the glacier Baishui No. 1, using a US-made PICO corer. 101 samples, each 0.1 m long, were collected. The sam- ples were processed in the field by cutting with a clean stainless knife, to obtain a contamination-free centre sample. Table tops and tools were modified or covered with plastic. Samples then were trans- ferred to polyethylene bags for further processing. Each sample was melted at about 20˚C in a clean plastic bag, and the meltwater was poured into a pre-cleaned high-density polyethylene bottle; the bottle top was sealed with wax to avoid evaporation Figure 2 Mean annual temperature and precipitation at the Lijiang meteorological or diffusion. Bottled samples were transported to station, 25 km north to the Mt. Yulong, 1951–1998. March 2001 15 Figure 4 Densities of 101 samples, each 0.10 m long in the core collected at the glacier Baishui No.1 in July 1999. A slow increase down to 7.8 m depth is interrupted by abrupt increases at ice layers formed by meltwater refreezing. These layers coincide with summer surfaces identified by chemical analyses. point in the uppermost 2 m of snow, but decreased to below 0˚C between 2.0 m and 8.2 m. There was a slight increase below 8.2 m. Figure 3 Profiles of δ18O, Ca2+, Mg2+, pH and conductivity These observations indicate a stronger influence of meltwater perco- values in the 10.10 m core collected in 1999, with the identified net lation in the uppermost 2.0 m and a reduced effect below that depth.
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