The influence of climatic change and human activity on erosion processes in sub‐arid watersheds in southern East Siberia

Abstract

Abstract:A LUCIFS model variant is presented that represents the influence of climate and land use change on fluvial systems. The study considers trends of climatic characteristics (air temperature, annual precipitation totals, rainfall erosion index, aridity and continentality coefficients) for the steppe and partially wooded steppe watersheds of the south of East Siberia (the Yenisey River macro-watershed). It also describes the influence of these characteristics on erosion processes, one indicator of which is the suspended sediment yield. Changes in the river network structure (the order of rivers, lengths, etc.) as a result of agricultural activity during the 20th century are investigated by means of analysis of maps of different dates for one of the watersheds, that of the Selenga River, the biggest tributary of Lake Baikal. The study reveals an increase of erosion process intensity in the first two-thirds of the century in the Selenga River watershed and a reduction of this intensity in the last third of the century, both in the Selenga River watershed and in most of the other watersheds of the study area.

Impacts of Gold Mining and Land Use Alterations on the Water Quality of Central Mongolian Rivers

“…A 44-year record of sediment loading from the Russian reaches of the Selenge at Mostovoy gives an average daily load of 5,545 tÁd À1 (Korytny et al 2003). This is comparable to the 1,211 to 6,800 tÁd À1 reported here.…”

“…Although extensive research has been conducted on the water quality of Lake Baikal (Galaziy 1980;Plumley 1997;Yoshioka et al 2002) and on the Russian reaches of the Selenge (Munguntsetseg 1984;Ubuganov et al 1998;Dambiev and Mairanovsky 2001;Garmaeva 2001;Korytny et al 2003;Khazheeva et al 2004), limited information is available on the conditions of Mongolian rivers (Batima and Davaa 1994;Batima 1998;Dallas 1999).…”

Suspended and Dissolved Matter Fluxes in the Upper Selenga River Basin

“…Increase of erosion process intensity in the first two-thirds of the 20 th century in the Selenga River watershed and a reduction of this intensity in the last third of the century is identified by [Korytny et al, 2003]. Changes in the river network structure (the order of rivers, lengths, etc.)…”

Leman-Baikal: Remote sensing of lakes using an ultralight plane

“…For example, the transformation of landscapes was studied by Sutyrina using data from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [5]. The influences of climatic changes and human activity were further explored by Korytny et al [6]. Mapping of distribution of air and water surface temperatures was done for the Lake Baikal using data from AVHRR [7].…”