Impacts of recent climate change on the hydrology in the source region of the Yellow River basin

Study region: The source region of the Yellow River (SRYE) in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Study focus: The spatial-temporal changes of hydrological and meteorological variables and their linkages over the SRYE were investigated for 1961-2013. Meanwhile, we quantified the impacts of precipitation and evapotranspiration on hydrological changes through climate elasticity by applying a land surface hydrological model. Furthermore, the impacts of warming climate on the seasonal snow cover and spring flow over the SRYE were examined. New hydrological insights for the region: Decreased precipitation and lightly increased evapotranspiration both contributed to reduced runoff in the 1990s, with the decreased precipitation playing a more important role (70%) than the increased evapotranspiration (30%). In the 2000s, precipitation contributed 3% to the runoff reduction, while the increased evapotranspiration accounted for 97%. Along with rapid warming, evapotranspiration is playing an increasingly important role in affecting runoff changes in the SRYE. During 2001-2012, snow cover in May decreased over the region. Spring peak flow mainly caused by snow-melt occurred earlier for about 15 days at the Jimai hydrological station due to an earlier snow melt associated with the climate warming in the past 3 decades. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.