The Response of Shallow Groundwater Levels to Soil Freeze–Thaw Process on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

作者：Licong Dai, Xiaowei Guo, Yangong Du, Fawei Zhang, Xun Ke, Yingfang Cao, Yikang Li, Qian Li, Lin Li, Guangmin Cao · 发表于：Ground Water · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1111/gwat.12832 · 被引用次数：34 · 研究领域：Climate change and permafrost、Cryospheric studies and observations、Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics

Abstract The Qinghai‐Tibet plateau has the world's largest area of seasonally frozen ground. Here, shallow groundwater displays behavior that is distinct from that elsewhere in the world. In the present study, we explore the seasonal and interannual variation of the shallow groundwater levels from 2012 to 2016, and attempt to quantitatively evaluate the relative influences of individual driving factors on the shallow groundwater levels based on boosted regression trees. The results show that: (1) on a seasonal scale, the groundwater levels were characterized by a double peak and double valley relationship, while on an interannual scale the groundwater levels showed a slightly downwards trend from 2012 to 2016; and (2) during the frozen period, the seasonal variation of groundwater levels was determined by mean air temperature through its effect on the soil thaw–freeze process, accounting for 53.15% of total variation. Meanwhile, ET 0 and rainfall exerted little impact on the seasonal variation of groundwater levels, which might be attributed to the aquitard of frozen soil that impedes the exchange between surface water and groundwater. Moreover, there was a lag between groundwater levels and soil freezing–thawing. During the non‐frozen period, the mean air temperature was again the most important factor impacting the variation of groundwater levels, through its effect on ET 0 , and accounted for 40.75% of total variation, while rainfall had little effect on groundwater levels...