Hydroclimate in Eurasia from the Arctic to the Tropics

• Main Author: Majhi, Ipshita
• Other Authors: Bhatt, Uma S., Zhang, Xiangdong, Molders, Nicole, Walsh, John, Krishnamurthy
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Hydrometeorology; Eurasia; Russia (Federation); Kolyma River Watershed; Yana River Valley (Sakha); Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Fairbanks; Indian; Kolyma; Sakha; Yana River; kolyma river; permafrost; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8731

Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018 Hydrometeorology in Eurasia connects the Arctic with lower latitudes through exchanges in moisture and teleconnections influencing climate variability. This thesis investigates the role of dams on the Kolyma basin, of precipitation and temperature change on a pristine permafrost lined basin of the Yana, and of changing snow cover over Eurasia on the Indian Monsoon. These three pieces of work illustrate different aspects of a changing climate that impact Eurasian hydrometeorological variations. The Kolyma is one of the large rivers which flows into the Arctic Ocean where there has been a large winter increase and summer decrease in flow over the 1986-2000 period. Winter months are characterized by low flow while summer months by high flow. Reservoir regulation was identified as the main cause of changes in the discharge pattern, since water is released in winter for power generation and stored in summer for flood control. The overall discharge to the Arctic Ocean has decreased for Kolyma basin, despite the increase during winter. This study documents how human activities (particularly reservoirs) impact seasonal and regional hydrological variations. The Yana Basin is a small pristine basin that has experienced minimal human impact and is ideal for investigating the role of climate variability on discharge. The precipitation discharge and temperature discharge analysis for Ubileinaya suggests that increased precipitation and higher temperatures resulted in higher discharge, but other parameters also come into play since greater precipitation does not always yield higher discharge. Overall our analysis for this station has increased our understanding of natural basins and how the climate variables like precipitation and temperature play a role. Recent increases in May-June Indian monsoon rain fall were investigated in the context of Eurasian snow cover variations since the onset of the monsoon has long been linked to Himalayan snow cover. Himalayan snow ...