Xainza County on the Qiangtang Plateau（QP） spans a transitionally climatic and eco-environmental zone and is therefore a very sensitive region.Glaciers in this area are one of the most important kinds of land cover as well as key water resources,yet our understanding of their current status and spatio-temporal change remains limited.Using Landsat images,this study investigated the current distribution of glaciers（2015） in the Xainza Xiegang Mountains as well as the spatio-temporal changes that took place over six time periods between 1976 and 2015.Results show that,in 2015,131 glaciers covered a total area of 74.59 ± 5.25 km^2,mainly located between 5,600 and 6,000 m above sea level（a.s.l）.Between 1976 and 2015,the total number of glaciers increased by 12,while their areas decreased by 24.98%（24.83 km^2）.Glacial retreat has induced a loss of water resources of 11.77 × 10~8 m^3 over the last 39 years,while spatial heterogeneities in glacial changes across various sub-basins,aspects,and altitudinal zones are also clearly observed.Climate warming is the key factor driving this continuous glacial retreat;the high-quality dataset presented in this paper for the Xainza Xiegang study area is crucial for the ongoing assessment of climatic and eco-environmental changes.
