Discussion on possibilities of taking ground ice in permafrost as water sources on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during climate warming

Large amounts of ground ice are born with permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Degradation of permafrost resulted from the climate warming will inevitably lead to melting of ground ice. The water released from the melting ground ice enters hydrologic cycles at various levels, and changes regional hydrologic regimes to various degrees. Due to difficulties in monitoring the permafrost-degradation-release-water process, direct and reliable evidence is few. The accumulative effect of releasing water, however, is remarkable in the macro-scale hydrologic process. On the basis of the monitoring results of water-levels changes in some lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and combined with the previous results of the hydrologic changing trends at the regional scale, the authors preliminarily discussed the possibilities of the degrading permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a potential water source during climate warming.