Scientists Reveal the Concentration and Source of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Snowpits of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau
Updatetime:2015-09-17From:
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The atmosphere spirit dissolve gum plays an important role in the global climate change, and the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a crucial component in the atmosphere spirit dissolve gum. DOC has a variety of sources, which mainly comes from fossil fuel and biomass burning in high intense human activities regions.
DOC has vital climate effect, which could scatter solar radiation directly or indirectly and affect atmospheric radiation balance. Besides, DOC also could contribute to the formation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and then affect climate and visibility.
Generally, DOC could be removed from the atmosphere by dry and wet deposition. Therefore, DOC deposition is an important part of the global carbon circulation. However, there are few studies focusing on the DOC in remote areas, especially in snowpits of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.
Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is the highest geographic unit in the world, as we know “the Third Pole” and “the Roof of the World”, which is also considered a magnifier of global climate change. With the global warming and human activities, glaciers melting in high altitude regions get more and more people’s attention. Scientists with Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute studied effects of the black carbon on the glacier albedo in glacier areas.
DOC could reduce the albedo of glacier surface, which will accelerate glaciers melting. Therefore, the research on the DOC not only plays an important role in carbon circulation research of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, but also has significance in understanding reasons of the glacier change in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.
This research is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.41271015, 41171398), the project of State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (SKLCS-ZZ-2008-01), and the research achievement was published in Environmental Science, under the title “Concentration and Source of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Snowpit of the Tibetan Plateau”.
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