Snowfall decrease in recent years undermines glacier health and meltwater resources in the Northwestern Pamirs
Central Asia hosts some of the world's last relatively healthy mountain glaciers and is heavily dependent on snow and ice melt for downstream water supply, though the causes of this stable glacier state are not known. We combine recent in-situ observations, climate reanalysis and remote sensing data to force a land-surface model to reconstruct glacier changes over the last two decades (1999-2023) and disentangle their causes over a benchmark glacierized catchment in Tajikistan. We show that snowfall and snow depth have been substantially lower since 2018, leading to a decline in glacier health and reduced runoff generation. Remote-sensing observations confirm wider snow depletion across the Northwestern Pamirs, suggesting that a lack of snowfall might be a cause of mass losses regionally. Our results provide an explanation for the recent decline in glacier health in the region, and reinforce the need to better understand the variability of precipitation.
Authors
- Abdulhamid Kayumov
- Pascal Buri
- Achille Jouberton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8509-9350)
- Evan Miles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5446-8571)
- К. Кабутов
- Francesca Pellicciotti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5554-8087)
- Ardamehr Halimov
- Michael McCarthy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4138-0578)
- Stefan Fugger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4659-4209)
- Hofiz Navruzshoev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5108-9039)
- Thomas E. Shaw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7640-6152)
- Marin Kneib (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2420-0475)
- Farrukh Homidov
Institutions
- University of Central Asia (KG)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (US)
- University of Fribourg (CH)
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria (AT)
- Tajik National University (TJ)
- Universität Innsbruck (AT)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan (TJ)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (CN)
- Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (FR)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Earth & Environment
- Published
- 2025-09-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02611-8
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Cryospheric studies and observations
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.20
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
- Université de Fribourg
- Swiss Polar Institute