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Abstract Approximately 40% of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is underlain by continuous permafrost, yet its impact on fluvial water and sediment dynamics remains poorly investigated. Here we show that water and sediment dynamics in the permafrost‐dominated Tuotuohe basin on the TP are driven by air temperature and permafrost thaw, based on 33‐year daily in situ observations (1985–2017). Air temperature regulates the seasonal patterns of discharge and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) by controlling the changes in active contributing drainage area (ACDA, the unfrozen erodible landscape that contributes hydrogeomorphic processes within a catchment) and governing multiple thermal processes such as glacier‐snow melt and permafrost thaw. Rainstorms determine the short‐lived fluvial extreme events by intensifying slope processes and channel erosion and likely also by enhancing thaw slumps. Furthermore, the SSCs at equal levels of discharges are lower in autumn (September–October) than in spring (May–June) and summer (July–August). This reduced sediment availability in autumn can possibly be attributed to the increased supra‐permafrost groundwater runoff and the reduced surface runoff and erosion. Due to rapid climate warming, the ACDA has increased significantly from 1985 to 2017, implying expanding erodible landscapes for hydrogeomorphic processes. As a result, the fluvial water and sediment fluxes have substantially increased. In a warmer and wetter future for the TP, the fluvial sediment fluxes of similar permafrost‐underlain basins will continue to increase with expanding erodible landscapes and intensifying thermal and pluvial‐driven geomorphic processes. Thus, permafrost thaw should be considered as an important driver of past and future water and sediment changes for the TP.
Li et al. (Wed,) studied this question.