Environment, economy and community of the upper Angara and middle Yenisei regions: impact of climate change and water reservoir cascades built on the Angara and Yenisei rivers

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Authors: Gorshkov, Sergei, Mochalova, Olga, Touchart, Laurent, Evseeva, Larisa, Ballais, Jean-Louis, Simone, Yves, Claude
• Other Authors: Department of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Environmental Initiatives Center - Moscow, Centre d'Etudes pour le Développement des Territoires et l'Environnement (CEDETE), Université d'Orléans (UO), Aix-Marseille Université - Faculté des Arts, Lettres, Langues et Sciences Humaines (AMU ALLSH), Aix Marseille Université (AMU), Études des Structures, des Processus d’Adaptation et des Changements de l’Espace (ESPACE), Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille 2-Université de Provence - Aix-Marseille 1-Avignon Université (AU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis (UNSA), GDR CNRS 3062 « Mutations polaires »
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: climate change; water reservoir cascades; Angara; Yenisei rivers; [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; permafrost; taiga; Siberia
• Online Access: https://univ-orleans.hal.science/hal-02095323; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247413000107

International audience This article is dedicated to the aggravation of negative natural and anthropogenous changes in Central Siberia in the Yenisei River geo-system. These changes are probably the result of global warming and climate destabilisation combined with intensified destructive processes in the region.The last decades were characterised by the following: 1.Growth of mean annual temperatures and change of annual climate structure resulting in extreme weather and hydrologic situations; 2. Large-scale degradation of insular permafrost with corresponding decrease of their water-cut; 3.Dry thunderstorms, fires, forest disease outbreaks became more frequent and abundant in the large areas; 4. Forage resources failures and game animals’ depletion in numbers became more frequent; 5. Overgrowing of the Angara and the Yenisei Rivers. Significant drop of spawning sites’ reproductive functions; 6. Northern borders of some wild populations’ habitats started moving further north; 7. Aggravation of boat traffic conditions and traditional use of natural resources; 8. Taiga lost its fire-suppression and chemical-protection functions almost completely; 9. Some issues have emerged regarding protection of people and domestic animals against natural-endemic diseases as well as predators.There are good reasons to believe that these processes display an unprecedented environmental crisis of the regional biosphere.