Rapid loss of lakes on the Mongolian Plateau
2015; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 112; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1073/pnas.1411748112
ISSN1091-6490
AutoresShengli Tao, Jingyun Fang, Xia Zhao, Shuqing Zhao, Haihua Shen, Huifeng Hu, Zhiyao Tang, Zhiheng Wang, Qinghua Guo,
Tópico(s)Environmental Changes in China
ResumoSignificance The Mongolian Plateau, composed mainly of Inner Mongolia in China and the Republic of Mongolia, has been experiencing remarkable lake shrinkage during the recent decades because of intensive human activities and climate changes. This study provides a comprehensive satellite-based evaluation of lake shrinkage across the plateau, and finds a greater decreasing rate of the number of lakes in Inner Mongolia than in Mongolia (34.0% vs. 17.6%) between the late 1980s and 2010, due mainly to an unsustainable mining boom and agricultural irrigation in the former. Disastrous damages to the natural systems are threatening the livelihood of local people, and we thus call for an urgent action to prevent further deterioration.
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