Numerical Modelling Of The Responses Of Soil Temperature And Soil Moisture To Climate Change Over The Tibetan Plateau, 1961-2010

Changes in soil temperature (ST) and soil moisture (SM) are essential for climate change and ecosystem assessments. Previous investigations on the ST and SM on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are mainly based on the situ observation and the satellite products. In this study, the improved Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM4.5), with proper parameter optimization and surface datasets update, is used to estimate the response of ST and SM in the TP to climate change in the long-term time series from 1961 to 2010. After validating the reasonability of the simulated results using the observations, the spatial distribution of changes in ST and SM in annual and seasonal time series since 1960s, 1980s, 1990s, are investigated respectively and the changes of precipitation (Pr) and surface evaporation (Ev) are also analysed to understand the cause of changes objectively. As a whole, the soil was warming and wetting at the maximum value of 0.31 degrees C/decade and 0.77%/decade since the 1960s. However, the warming process in soil mainly occurred in the 1980s while the wetting tendency is detected since the 1990s extensively. Except for the influence of air warming, the enhanced Pr and Ev might also be indispensable factors that caused the intensive wetting process but damped warming process in soil. Summer is the favourable season for the thermal and hydraulic variation since the 1980s. There exists the striking warmer and drier trend in the eastern TP since 1980s while the colder and wetter condition in the western TP since the 1990s. The magnitude of variation in soil is magnified from 1990s under the continuing impact of climate change.