Glaciers are highly sensitive to the climate change, especially the mountain glaciers. Therefore, the glacier is called the indicator of climate change. 

According to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, global land and ocean surface temperatures increased by 0.85℃ during 1880-2012. Glaciers in middle and low latitude of Asia retreated significantly, which affect the regional water resource and the global sea-level rise directly. 

The Yarkant River originates from the north slope of Karakoram, which is one of the major sources of Tarim River. Surface water resources in the Yarkant River Basin mainly come from the Karakoram, West Kunlun Mountain and Pamirs. 

The change of glaciers in the Yarkant River basin in China from 1968-2009 were analyzed on the basis of the outcome of Investigation of Chinese Glacier Resources and Their Changes and result of the First Glacier Inventory of China.  

Research data show that there are 3,297 glaciers with a total area of 6341.82 km² in the Yarkant River Basin after the First Glacier Inventory, research data of the Second Glacier Inventory show there are only 3,247 glaciers and the number of glaciers decrease by 1.5% in 2009. 

Based on research data of the First and Second Glacier Inventories of China, the ice volume in the Yarkant River Basin was 730.46 km³ in 1968. However, the ice volume in 2010 was only 624.01 km³. The reserve decreased by 14.6%. 

The research result also shows that the glacierized areas in the Yarkant River basin have shrunk 927 km² at a rate of 0.36%▪a^-1 as a whole. Compared with glacier changes in other mountains in China, the degree of retreat in the Yarkant River basin is in the medium range.  

Moreover, most disintegrated glaciers are dendritic glaciers in the research area. In the Karakoram Mountains, due to advancing and surging, there are 13 glaciers superimposed to be six glaciers in the research area. 

The air temperature and precipitation had increased from 1968 to 2009; increase in precipitation had relieved glacier retreat under a rising temperature 

This work was published in the Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, Vol. 37, No. 1, Feb., 2015, under the title “Glacier change of the Yarkant River basin from 1968 to 2009 derived from the Frist and Second Glacier Inventories of China”. 

This study was supported by the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Program for International S&T Cooperation Projects of China.  

Corresponding author: Prof. Liu Shiyin 

E-mail: Liusy@lzb.ac.cn