Intermittency of Endorheic Rivers in the Tarim River Basin

River intermittency is essential for river ecosystem health in arid regions.Based on the 30-meter horizontal resolution digital elevation model and surface water dynamic information, this study extracted the endorheic river networks in the Tarim River basin.We investigated the hierarchical characteristics of intermittency of endorheic rivers as well as their major influencing factors by introducing the connectivity index(CI).Among all the stream-orders, CI of rivers at Strahler orders 4 and 5 are most sensitive to the variation of basin factors.River intermittency in the Tarim River Basin is primarily controlled by the climatic and topographic conditions, with CI exhibiting negative correlations with potential evapotranspiration(r=-0.27~-0.60),but significant positive correlation with basin slope(r=0.29~0.54).On the other hand, the underlying surface conditions are also closely related to the endorheic river connectivity, with CI enhanced by increased glacier extent in the river basin, but depressed by desert extent in the river basin.