Present climate development in Southern Siberia: a 55-year weather observations record

Abstract

Siberia is a key region for study of the climate development in north-central Eurasia in terms of global climatic change. The relief creates a major orographic barrier for atmospheric streams influencing the regional altitudinal weather zonality. Systematic 55-year (1963-2017) weather observations along the 700 km N-S latitudinal transect across the southern Siberian plains and the adjoining ranges of the Altai-Sayan Mountains document progressing seasonal temperature and humidity shifts. Standard meteorological data from twenty meteorological stations in different topographical and natural settings with specific weather conditions document a rise of a regional atmospheric humidity balance reflected by the increased bulk annual precipitation rates in the mountain areas accompanied by pronounced seasonal air-temperature fluctuations. This regionally trend provides evidence speaking in favor of the strengthening climate continentality over Siberia, which is also manifested by the pronounced seasonal temperature regime with increased thermally positive and negative air temperature anomalies. A landscape response to a climate warming is particularly evident in the high mountain zone. The present thermal conditions with raised MAT contribute to the progressing melting of mountain glaciers and degradation of permafrost in the alpine zone, as well as aridization of the parkland-steppe areas that are being partly transformed into continental semi-arid to deserted steppes. The associated environmental transformations trigger shifts in the local biotopes and ecosystems, with an altitudinal expansion of taiga-forest into the alpine tundra belt and xerothermic grassland invasions in the foothills. The modern climate changes have a major bearing to the Altai-Sayans socio-economic development.

Environmental Dynamics of the Ribbon-Like Pine Forests in the Parklands of North Kazakhstan

“…January −16.7 • C, July +21.3 • C) characterize the pronounced continentality of the area (Figure 9A). The longterm trend of the MAAT increase in NE Kazakhstan is less prominent than in the adjoining mountain and lowland areas of Siberia [71,72], corresponding to just about +0.4 • C rise over the period between 1990-2020 with the documented annual thermal maximum in 2020 (Figure 9B). Yet, this constant change promotes the apparent expansion of steppes at the expense of birch-pine forests.…”

Chemodiversity of Arctic Plant Dryas oxyodonta: LC-MS Profile and Antioxidant Activity

“…For the quantitative analysis of compounds using HPLC-PDA-ESI-tQ-MS, as well as for a comparative qualitative analysis of the components, samples of D. oxyodonta (flowers and leaves) were collected from three different regions of the high-mountain alpine tundra belt in Siberia: Sakha (1000 m), Buryatia (1900 m), and Altai (2300 m) (Table 2). These regions have a sharply continental climate, wide daily and annual temperature fluctuations, and moderate precipitation [58,59]. Procyanidin B1 was identified as the primary compound in both flowers and leaves of D. oxyodonta collected from the Sakha region (55.11 and 73.84 mg/g, respectively).…”

Analysis of Wildfires in the Mid and High Latitudes Using a Multi-Dataset Approach: A Case Study in California and Krasnoyarsk Krai

“…The average temperature in winter is −36 • C in the north and −18 • C in the south. Summer temperature can reach up to approximately 25 • C in July [31]. The wildfires of 28 July 2019 were mostly concentrated in the Yakutsk region, in Krasnoyarsk Krai.…”