Variation of the Melang Glacier in Mount Kawa Karpo in the Past 40 Years,Based on Dendrochronolog

In Mount Kawa Karpo,the variation of glaciers,as well as the correlation between glaciers and climate change,is rarely known,because there is lack of data about spatial and temporal variation of glaciers,and less research about the variation has been done.Dendrochonology is a world-famous tool to reconstruct glacier fluctuation.In this study,the tree-ring samples from the moraine by the glacier terminus are analyzed,and then variation of the Melang Glacier in the past 40 years is determined by means of topographic map and latest GPS boundaries in GIS.Using the dendrochronology,the age of Picea likiangensis living on the moraine by the glacier terminus and the forming age of the moraine are determined.It is found that the latest event about glacier variation occurred in 1987,after a topographic map being completed in 1971.Derived from the ages of spruces living inside and outside the moraine,it is believed that from 1987 to 1993 the glacier terminus had existed stably at the position where spruces begun to grew in 1998.Because the youngest tree has grown,it is inferred that the glacier retreated about 1993.There is a glacier close to the Melang Glacier,whose terminus was thought at the steady state until 1959,and in the GIS map of 1971,the glacier terminus is outside the area where trees live.