中国高寒区以草原、草甸、寒漠和荒漠等下垫面为主(87.7%),但这些下垫面在流域水循环中的作用及其差异尚不很明确。为此在祁连山葫芦沟小流域布设了系统对比观测试验,试验点、小流域尺度4年冻土-植被-大气传输系统及水量平衡观测和模拟结果以及其他相关研究成果表明,各下垫面径流系数可粗略排序为:冰川〉寒漠〉沼泽化草甸〉山坡灌丛〉草甸〉草原〉森林;高山寒漠带(占中国西部高寒区面积的12%)应为山区流域的主要产流区,而高寒苹甸/草原区(约占高寒区面积的64%)径流贡献较少,其水源涵养功能大于水文功能;据此推断,若全球变暖引起植被带上移,则高山区流域的蒸散发/降水比例可能增大、径流系数变小。
In the cold regions of western China, underlying surfaces are mainly (87.7%) composed of grass- land, meadow and desert. However, the hydrological functions of these landtypes are unclear and lacking in ade- quate measured data. Based on the 4-year (2009-2012) observation work at point scale, small watershed scale and simulation results from Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) system, it concludes that the alpine desert should be the primary runoff production area, which takes part 12% of high-cold region. While the alpine grassland and meadow ( taking about 64% ) contribute to the watershed runoff a little, its ecological function is more evident than its hydrological function. Combined with other research results in the literature, runoff coefficient for different landsacpes can be sorted as: glacier〉cold desert〉swamp meadow〉hill slope shrub〉meadow〉alpine grassland〉for- est. If the vegetation belt moves upward under the global warming, the runoff coefficient will decrease in the alpine watershed of China.