Search Results (25)

Atmospheric warming results in increase in temperatures for the mean, the coldest, and the hottest day of the year, season, or month. Global warming leads to a large increase in the atmospheric water vapor content and to changes in the hydrological cycle, which include an intensification of precipitation extremes. Using the GISS-E2.1 climate model, we present the future changes in the coldest and hottest daily temperatures as well as in extreme precipitation indices (under four main Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs)). The increase in the wet-day precipitation ranges between 6% and 15% per 1 °C global surface temperature warming. Scaling of the 95th percentile versus the total precipitation showed that the sensitivity for the extreme precipitation to the warming is about 10 times stronger than that for the mean total precipitation. For six precipitation extreme indices (Total Precipitation, R95p, RX5day, R10mm, SDII, and CDD), the histograms of probability density functions become flatter, with reduced peaks and increased spread for the global mean compared to the historical period of 1850–2014. The mean values shift to the right end (toward larger precipitation and intensity). The higher the GHG emission of the SSP scenario, the more significant the increase in the index change. We found an intensification of precipitation over the globe but large uncertainties remained regionally and at different scales, especially for extremes. Over land, there is a strong increase in precipitation for the wettest day in all seasons over the mid and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. There is an enlargement of the drying patterns in the subtropics including over large regions around Mediterranean, southern Africa, and western Eurasia. For the continental averages, the reduction in total precipitation was found for South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia, and there is an increase in total precipitation over North America, Asia, and the continental Russian Arctic. Over the continental Russian Arctic, there is an increase in all precipitation extremes and a consistent decrease in CDD for all SSP scenarios, with the maximum increase of more than 90% for R95p and R10 mm observed under SSP5–8.5. Full article

The urban landscape of the Russian Arctic, shaped during the Soviet era of extensive urbanization, embeds narratives of colonial appropriation and serves as the foundation for ongoing urban development. In light of climatic, political, and social uncertainties, design disciplines must navigate the balance between environmental sustainability and the varied needs of residents, requiring a systemic approach to design. This study combines theoretical analysis with qualitative field research conducted in two Western Siberian cities (Novyy Urengoy and Tarko-Sale), including interviews, mental mapping, and systematic observation of urban life. Analysis of the collected data revealed significant challenges in current urban design practices, particularly regarding weather protection, seasonal adaptation, and social space creation. The proposed model constitutes a pioneering initiative in domestic Arctic urban research, aiming to conceptualize a context-sensitive approach to urban environmental formation, thereby challenging prevalent universal/mainstream methodologies and establishing a theoretical framework for future applications. Our theoretical model synthesizes representations, perceptions, and materiality, conceptualizing the architectural environment as a context-sensitive “life-support module”. This conceptualization emphasizes that successful Arctic urban design must emerge from specific local contexts rather than universal solutions, as demonstrated by our analysis of residents’ spatial practices and adaptations to extreme conditions. We reference media studies to analyze urban materiality as both an artificial construct that mediates perceptions of the immediate surroundings and as a generative force that actively shapes meanings, practices, and sensations. Our findings indicate that current standardized approaches to Arctic urban development often fail to address local needs and environmental conditions, suggesting the necessity for a fundamental shift in design methodology. Given that the urban realm is a fundamental component in shaping individual and collective perceptions, this conceptual shift has the potential to significantly influence prevailing societal views of the “empty” and “hostile” Arctic. Full article

Climate-induced changes contribute to the thawing of ice-rich permafrost in the Arctic, which leads to the release of large amounts of organic carbon into the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide and methane. Ground ice constitutes a considerable volume of the cryogenically sequestered labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) subjected to fast mineralization upon thawing. In this work, we collected a unique geochemical database of the ground and glacier ice comprising the samples from various geographic locations in the Russian Arctic characterized by a variety of key parameters, including ion composition, carbon-bearing gases (methane and carbon dioxide), bulk biogeochemical indicators, and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (DOM) fractions. Our results show that interaction with solid material—such as sediments, detritus, and vegetation—is likely the overriding process in enrichment of the ground ice in all the dissolved compounds. Terrigenous humic-like dissolved organic matter was predominant in all the analyzed ice samples except for glacier ice from Bolshevik Island (the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago) and pure (with low sediment content) tabular ground ice from western Yamal. The labile protein-like DOM showed no correlation to humic components and was probably linked to microbial abundance in the ground ice. The sum of the fluorophores deconvoluted by PARAFAC strongly correlates to DOC, which proves the potential of using this approach for differentiation of bulk DOC into fractions with various origins and biogeochemical behaviors. The pure tabular ground ice samples exhibit the highest rate of fresh easily degradable DOM in the bulk DOC, which may be responsible for the amplification of permafrost organic matter decomposition upon thawing. Full article

The high-resolution long-term hydrometeorological “COSMO-CLM Russian Arctic hindcast” based on nonhydrostatic regional atmospheric model COSMO-CLM v.5.06 for the 1980–2016 period covering the North Atlantic, Barents, and Kara and Laptev Seas with ~12 km grid size was utilized to estimate climatological trends of extreme wind speed. In this study, we used the 10 m wind speed data from 95 Russian weather stations inside the hindcast domain. Trends in mean, maximal, 0.90, 0.95, 0.99 quantiles wind speed values, and occurrences of wind speed above 20, 25, 30, and 33 m/s were calculated for all stations and corresponding nearest model grids for yearly data and data from four months of the calendar year (January, April, July, and October). Yearly mean wind speed and quantiles values were observed to increase over the northern Kara Sea, while decreases were observed over the western Barents Sea and northern Atlantic. Extreme wind speeds were observed to increase in January in the eastern Evenkia and northern Yakutia, while declining was observed over north-eastern European Russia. The 0.99 quantile values increased in July near the Gyda peninsula coastline, but decreased over polar regions, the Pechora Sea, and the White Sea coastline. Maximal wind speed declined in October over north-western European Russia, eastern Taymyr, and the Norway Sea, but grew over the Eastern Siberian Sea. Full article

The Arctic coast dynamics has been an urgent problem over the last years, from both a practical and a fundamental point of view. In this research, for the first time for the Russian Arctic coast, we assessed the damage from the loss of territories in the western part of the Russian Arctic, where the active production and transportation of hydrocarbon material are carried out. Most of the studied coastline is composed of frozen unlithified soils with inclusions of underground ice. In this regard, the coastal zone is highly sensitive to climate change and its economic consequences. According to our investigation and literature data, the erosion rates could rich up to 2–3 m/year in some part of the coastline. Having estimated the cadastral cost of land and the area of the possible loss of territory, as well as the cost of transport infrastructure in the risk zone, we tried to predict the damage from changes in the total structure of the area under consideration. In particular, the economic damages from coastal permafrost processes were estimated. The assessment was conducted for the middle of the 21st century, taking into account the current climatic trend, erosion rate and probable maximum warming in this region. Full article

The article is a continuation of the research on creating the most complete and representative earthquake catalogs by combining all available data from regional, national, and international seismological agencies and reducing magnitudes to a uniform scale. The task of identifying and removing duplicates that arise during the merging process is solved using the authors’ modification of the nearest neighbor method. It is evident that the intelligent merging of different earthquake catalogs for the same territory will improve the completeness and representativeness of events in the final integrated catalog. In this article, the earthquake catalog of the western sector of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF) covering the period 1962–2022 was created by merging three regional Russian catalogs and the ISC catalog. The ratio of magnitude types in the catalog for different seismic networks was analyzed, and magnitude estimates were unified based on the obtained ratios. For analyzing seismic activity in the western AZRF, it is recommended to use earthquakes from the period 1998–2020 when the catalog was significantly cleaned from explosions and other events of the “non-earthquake” type. Full article

The Arctic zone of the Russian Federation is one of the most intensively developing regions of the country. Amongst the major domains of economic and industrial growth and improvement is transport infrastructure and particularly the railway network. This area is being exposed to negative factors of rapid climate change that can significantly affect and compromise this activity. Thus, it is vital to take them into account during design, construction, and operation of the railway infrastructure facilities. This work details the production of a digital atlas comprising the 1950–2021 dynamics of the main hydrometeorological parameters: air and soil temperature, precipitation, wind speed, air and soil humidity, and snow cover thickness. The maps are based on climatic data derived from the MERRA-2 (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2) reanalysis. In total there are 459, which are arranged into 7 chapters. The atlas geographically covers the western part of the Russian Arctic encompassing the regions of quite intensive transport development, which includes the construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway. Original algorithms of geospatial data processing and their further representation as well as the maps compiled in GIS environment are discussed. Comprehensive analysis of climatic changes in the region of the Russian Arctic including detailed quantitative evaluation over 40 years is given. In the Discussion, we focus on those changes of the regional climate which, from our point of view, are the most significant for consideration by railway operators. The obtained results contribute to framing the theoretical basis of design, development, and sustainable operation of the railway infrastructure in the Arctic and facilitate the decision-making process. This is the first experience of building a specialized climatic cartographic product for the needs of the Russian railways, and to our knowledge the first atlas such as that in the world. In the future, the amassed experience may be transferred to other regions of the Russian Federation as well as similar regions in Canada, Sweden and Highland China that are also subject to significant climate change. Full article

The chemical composition of sediments from the Arctic mountain Lake Bolshoy Vudjavr, situated in the western part of the Russian Arctic zone, was studied. The lake has been under intense anthropogenic load for more than 90 years since the development of the richest apatite–nepheline deposits in the world started. A 27 cm thick sediment core was sampled in the central part of the lake at the maximum depth of 37.4 m. The concentrations of more than 50 elements were analyzed by the mass spectral method, ICP-MS. The lake sedimentation rate established from the change in the content of the radioactive isotope ²¹⁰Pb was 2.3 mm/yr. The effluent from apatite–nepheline production and atmospheric fallout enrich the sediments of Lake Bolshoy Vudjavr with alkali and alkaline earth metals, N, P, Mn, Fe, Al compounds, rare earth elements, and trace elements (Sb, Cu, Zn, Pb, Bi, Nb, Ta, Th). Analysis of the forms of elements in the lake sediments showed that the studied elements are mainly found in stable fractions—mineral, acid-soluble, and associated with organic matter. The pollution of the sediments of Lake Bolshoy Vudjavr was assessed by the integral index PLI (Pollution Load Index) and CF (contamination factor). The PLI value sharply increased after the “Apatite” Plant had been launched and a large amount of wastewater from the mines had been released into the lake. The highest PLI values were detected in the sediment layers accumulated during the period 1990s–2000s. Sb (18.2), P (10.3), Sr (7.8), and La (6.0) have the maximum CF values among all the studied elements. Full article

Arctic regions are ecologically significant for the environmental persistence and geographic dissemination of influenza A viruses (IAVs) by avian hosts and other wildlife species. Data describing the epidemiology and ecology of IAVs among wildlife in the arctic are less frequently published compared to southern temperate regions, where prevalence and subtype diversity are more routinely documented. Following PRISMA guidelines, this systematic review addresses this gap by describing the prevalence, spatiotemporal distribution, and ecological characteristics of IAVs detected among wildlife and the environment in this understudied region of the globe. The literature search was performed in PubMed and Google Scholar using a set of pre-defined search terms to identify publications reporting on IAVs in Arctic regions between 1978 and February 2022. A total of 2125 articles were initially screened, 267 were assessed for eligibility, and 71 articles met inclusion criteria. IAVs have been detected in multiple wildlife species in all Arctic regions, including seabirds, shorebirds, waterfowl, seals, sea lions, whales, and terrestrial mammals, and in the environment. Isolates from wild birds comprise the majority of documented viruses derived from wildlife; however, among all animals and environmental matrices, 26 unique low and highly pathogenic subtypes have been characterized in the scientific literature from Arctic regions. Pooled prevalence across studies indicates 4.23% for wild birds, 3.42% among tested environmental matrices, and seroprevalences of 9.29% and 1.69% among marine and terrestrial mammals, respectively. Surveillance data are geographically biased, with most data from the Alaskan Arctic and many fewer reports from the Russian, Canadian, North Atlantic, and Western European Arctic. We highlight multiple important aspects of wildlife host, pathogen, and environmental ecology of IAVs in Arctic regions, including the role of avian migration and breeding cycles for the global spread of IAVs, evidence of inter-species and inter-continental reassortment at high latitudes, and how climate change-driven ecosystem shifts, including changes in the seasonal availability and distribution of dietary resources, have the potential to alter host–pathogen–environment dynamics in Arctic regions. We conclude by identifying gaps in knowledge and propose priorities for future research. Full article

Environmental and anthropogenic factors represent challenges impacting the lifestyle and demographic rural population’s behaviour in the Russian Arctic that threaten its social and food security. We aim to explore (1) which key “push” factors are jeopardising social sustainability and increasing migration outflows in the Arctic rural communities of Western Siberia (2) and how the Siberian population’s sustainable development could be secured. The methodology and analysis were based on Lee’s theory of migration factors with the main focus on the “push” factors forcing people to migrate to other Arctic and non-Arctic territories. The primary sources included fieldwork data and interviews collected during expeditions to the Arctic zone of Western Siberia between 2000 and 2021. Both men and women confirmed the insignificant impact of environmental factors on their emigration plans. However, they signified social and personal motives related to low standards of living that threatened their social and food security. The rural Siberian population’s migration strategies could be re-evaluated only by increasing the physical availability of food products and developing the social infrastructure of the settlements as either “models of rural cities” or “service centres for nomadic and rural population”. Full article

Climate warming in the Russian Arctic over the past 40 years shows a variety of patterns at different locations and time periods. In the second half of the 20th century, the maximum rates of warming were characteristic of the subarctic permafrost regions of Russia. But in the 21st century, the locations of the greatest rates of climate warming moved to the Arctic zone of Russia. It was one of the reasons for a sharp increase in permafrost temperatures, an increase in the depth of seasonal thaw, and the formation of closed taliks. It was found that as a result of climate change, the differences in permafrost temperatures between different cryogenic landscapes in the area of continuous and discontinuous permafrost distribution have decreased, and in the area of sporadic permafrost distribution are now practically absent. The thermal regime of the ground shows dramatic changes everywhere with a pronounced reduction in the depth of zero annual amplitude. Full article

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia; RS(Y)) is located in the northeast of Siberia (Russia) in the basins of the Lena, Yana, and Indigirka rivers, in the lower reaches of the Kolyma River. Yakutia is an industrial–agrarian republic with a developed mining, fuel, and energy industry. Indigenous peoples live mainly in the Arctic regions, where the large-scale development of mineral resources is planned, and South Yakutia, where the mining industry is well developed. The aim of this study is the development of methodological approaches to assessing the impact of the mining industry on the natural environment and the social sphere in the places of residence and traditional economic activities of the indigenous peoples of the North. We used the results of research work (R&D), materials of expeditionary work, and regulatory documents of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Russian Federation (RF). The state of the environment (ES) was assessed on the basis of the analysis of indicators for three areas: (a) anthropogenic load, (b) environmental and social consequences, and (c) resistance of natural complexes to technogenic impacts. In total, 22 indicators were used for the 3 areas, for example, population density, person/km²; the volume of extraction of rock mass, million m³; and emissions, t/year. To bring dissimilar indicators into comparable ones, we used a methodological approach with the use of the social risk index (SRI). In Arctic regions (mainly agricultural), the ES is in a favorable and relatively favorable state: SRI 0.61–0.70; in the central regions (mainly agricultural), it is satisfactory and relatively satisfactory: SRI 0.71–1.0; in the southern and western regions with a developed mining industry, it is relatively tense and tense: SRI 1.01–3.0. An extremely tense state of environmental conditions has developed in the city of Yakutsk: SRI ≥ 3. Generally, the deterioration of the environmental situation and vital activity of the indigenous peoples in investigated Arctic region correlated with the impact of the mining industry. Full article

In contrast to the well-studied West Siberian sector of frozen bogs in the Russian Arctic, the frozen mound bogs (so-called “palsas”) on the highlands of Southern Siberia have not yet been studied, but they are suspected to be even more sensitive to ongoing climate change. This article provides the pilot study on palsa mire Kara-Sug in the highland areas of Western Sayan mountain system, Tuva Republic. The study focuses on the current state of palsa mire and surrounding landscapes, providing wide range of ecological characteristics while describing ongoing transformations of natural landscapes under a changing climate. The study used a variety of field and laboratory methods: the integrated landscape-ecological approach, the study of peat deposits, geobotanical analysis, and modern analysis of the chemical composition of water, peat, and soils. The study shows that highland palsa mires are distinguished by their compactness and high variety of cryogenic landforms leading to high floristic and ecosystem diversity compared with lowland palsa mires. This information brings new insights and contributes to a better understanding of extrazonal highland palsa mires, which remain a “white spot” in the global environmental sciences. Full article

As Arctic warming continues, its impact on vegetation greenness is complex, variable and inherently scale-dependent. Studies with multiple spatial resolution satellite observations, with 30 m resolution included, on tundra greenness have been implemented all over the North American tundra. However, finer resolution studies on the greenness trends in the Russian tundra have only been carried out at a limited local or regional scale and the spatial heterogeneity of the trend remains unclear. Here, we analyzed the fine spatial resolution dataset Landsat archive from 1984 to 2018 over the entire Russian tundra and produced pixel-by-pixel greenness trend maps with the support of Google Earth Engine (GEE). The entire Russian tundra was divided into six geographical regions based on World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ecoregions. A Theil–Sen regression (TSR) was used for the trend identification and the changed pixels with a significance level p < 0.05 were retained in the final results for a subsequent greening/browning trend analysis. Our results indicated that: (1) the number of valid Landsat observations was spatially varied. The Western and Eastern European Tundras (WET and EET) had denser observations than other regions, which enabled a trend analysis during the whole study period from 1984 to 2018; (2) the most significant greening occurred in the Yamal-Gydan tundra (WET), Bering tundra and Chukchi Peninsula tundra (CT) during 1984–2018. The EET had a greening trend of 2.3% and 6.6% and the WET of 3.4% and 18% during 1984–1999 and 2000–2018, respectively. The area of browning trend was relatively low when we first masked the surface water bodies out before the trend analysis; and (3) the Landsat-based greenness trend was broadly similar to the AVHRR-based trend over the entire region but AVHRR retrieved more browning areas due to spectral mixing adjacent effects. Higher resolution images and field measurement studies are strongly needed to understand the vegetation trend over the Russian tundra ecosystem. Full article

The Arctic coastal environment is a very dynamic system and sensitive to any changes. In our research we demonstrate that nivation (snow patch activity) impacts the Arctic landscape especially in the coastal dynamic at the western part of Russian Arctic. During fieldwork, snowbanks were described and studied and their qualitative role in the development of coastal systems was revealed for Baydaratskaya Bay coast, the Kara Sea. On one side, the large snow cover protects the coastal slope from thermodenudation and thermoabrasion; on the other side, a thick layer of snow affects the ground temperature regime. During snow melting, snow patches contribute to the removal of material from the coastal slope. The quantitative effect of snow on the ground temperature regime was assessed according to numerical simulations. The critical snow thickness was determined based on a calculation. Critical snow thicknesses based on simulation and field data correlated well. The numerical simulation showed the talik formation under the snow patch. Talik size essentially depends on the freezing temperature of sediment (influenced by salinity). The changes of ground temperature regime might further generate thawing settlement of sediment under snow and contribute to beach topography, which might be a trigger for thermoabrasion. Full article