Variation of Continental Glacier and Temperate Glacier in China: A Case Study of Glacier No. 1 at the Headwaters of the Urumqi River and Baishui Glacier No. 1
It is of great scientific significances and realistic values to comparatively research continental glacier and temperate glacier change. As an indicator of climate change,glacier change has attracted many researchers to pay great attentions for a long time. This paper carried out a comparative study on the changes of Glacier No. 1 (a continental glacier) at the headwaters of the Urumqi River and of Glacier No. 1 (a temperate glacier) in the Baishui River Basin in the Yulong Mountain under global warming since the 1950s. The results showed that the glacial mass loss and equilibrium-line altitude as well as the temperature in mobile layer increased,glacier depth thinned, flow velocity slowed down,glacier terminus retreated,and the glacier area and volume reduced. The change rate of continental glacier increased or higher than that of temperate glacier,and the change gaps of two type glaciers reduced gradually or stabilized. Further analysis revealed that the ablation and retreat of two type glaciers was mainly caused by temperature increase,and then by the reduction of ice-surface albedo,and the differences between two type glaciers were the climatic environment, sensitivity of response to climate change, the mechanism of accelerated ablation,and others.