EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Yamdrok Lake

Yamdrok Lake, Tibet

Explanation:  This week we are winding along on a narrow 2-lane road skirting the shores of massive Yamdrok Lake, here in the Tibetan high country.  We are some 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Lhasa, heading to the town of Gyantse far to the west.  

Yamdrok Lake is maintained by a hydropower dam, and stretches 45 miles (72 km) long.  It is truly a high Qinghai-Tibetan plateau site, with the water surface at an elevation of 14,570 feet (4,441 m) above sea level.  Oxygen feels thin here.  

Climate-change studies have revealed that the surface area of the lake, and others of this plateau, has expanded according to recent increases in air temperature and precipitation.  The reason is that regional warming is causing nearby glaciers and snowfields to melt, and permafrost to thaw and degrade, adding subsurface and surface waters to the lakes, thus expanding their volumes and surface areas.  

Yamdrok Lake also has an interesting composition, with high levels of metals in surface sediments, in part from sources of inflowing rivers.  There is some concern for the level of arsenic and cadmium in the waters, needing further study.

Noted by some travel sites as one of three "sacred lakes" of Tibet,
Yamdrok has Buddhist visitations such as noted by this
colorful cone of prayer flags.

Also note the scattering of habitations across the lake
among terraced agricultural fields.

Information:
     Che, F., J. Chen, B. Zhang, X. Jiang, and S. Wang.  2020.  Distribution, risk and bioavailability of metals in sediments of Lake Yamdrok Basin on the Tibetan Plateau, China.  Journal of Environmental Sciences 97:169-179.
     Kun, W., Z. Lan, J. Xia, and W. ShuHang.  2018.  Determination of background value and potential ecological risk of heavy metals in sediments of a deep plateau lake.  Research of Environmental Sciences 31(12):2124-2132.  
     Liao, J., G. Shen, and Y. Li.  2012.  Lake variations in response to climate change in the Tibetan Plateau in the past 40 years.  International Journal of Digital Earth 6(6):534-549.