No abstract

Water level and distribution of dissolved and suspended matter of Lake Baikal are strongly affected by river inflow during rain-driven floods. This study analyses river flow changes at 44 streamflow gauges and related precipitation, evaporation, potential evaporation and soil moisture obtained from ERA5-Land dataset. Based on Sen-Slope trend estimator, Mann–Kendall non-parametric test, and using dominant analyses we estimated influence of meteorological parameters on river flow during 1979-2019. Using ridge-regression we found significant relationships between precipitation elasticity of river flow and catchments features. Half of the gauges in eastern part of Selenga river basin showed a significant decreasing trend of average and maximum river flow (up to -2.9%/year). No changes in central volume date of flood flow have been found. A reduction in rainfall amounts explains more than 60% of runoff decline. Decrease in evaporation is observed where precipitation decrease is 0.8%/y or more. Catchments where the precipitation trends are not as substantial are associated with increasing evaporation as a result of the increase of potential evaporation. Negative trends of precipitation are accompanied by negative trends of soil moisture. Finally, the study reveals sensitivity of the catchments with steep slopes in humid area to precipitation change.