Considerable but unsustainable water supply from thawing permafrost on the Tibetan Plateau in a changing climate

In a warming climate, the sustainability of cryospheric meltwater on the Tibetan Plateau has raised concerns because of its importance for the fragile ecosystem in the headwater regions and the dense populations in the downstream. Existing studies mainly focused on glacier melt and snow melt on the Tibetan Plateau, which are above the ground surface can be detected from the surface using in-situ or satellite observations. However, the hydrological implications of thawing permafrost below the ground surface remain largely unknown.