As one of the important ecological barriers adjusting regional climate change, alpine wetlands play a very important role in runoff regulation and affect climate change in downstream regions. 

However, the characteristics of the coupling process and the controlling factors over alpine wetland have not been discussed due to the lack of observations. 

Recently, scientists from Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, together with their colleagues from Gansu Meteorological Service Centre, analyzed the mechanisms of the latent heat transfer and coupling processes between the alpine wetland and atmosphere with a combination of land surface models. 

In this study, scientists studied the mechanisms by which solar radiation and water vapor pressure deficit control the latent heat flux density based on in situ observations in the Zoige alpine wetlands. 

Besides, scientists also analyzed the hydro-meteorological factors and quantified and verified the coupling degree between the alpine wetland and the atmosphere by the sensitivity tests of the community land surface model. 

This study contributes to understanding land surface processes and protecting alpine wetland ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. 

This study has been published on the Atmospheric Research in an article entitled “Assessments of the factors controlling latent heat flux and the coupling degree between an alpine wetland and the atmosphere on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in summer”. 

Contact 

WEN Jun 

E-mail: jwen@cuit.edu.cn 

Key Laboratory of Land Surface Processes, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Science, Lanzhou, 730000, China.