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, Evseeva, Larisa, Mochalova, Olga, Touchart, Laurent, Ballais, Jean-Louis, Simone, Yves
• 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), Études des Structures, des Processus d’Adaptation et des Changements de l’Espace (ESPACE), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS)-Avignon Université (AU)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Aix Marseille Université (AMU), Processus de Transfert et d'Echanges dans l'Environnement - EA 3819 (PROTEE), Université de Toulon (UTLN)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: natural change; anthropogenous change; global warming; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; [SDU.STU.HY]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Hydrology; permafrost; Polar Record; taiga; Siberia
• Online Access: https://amu.hal.science/hal-01571439; https://amu.hal.science/hal-01571439/document; https://amu.hal.science/hal-01571439/file/Environment,%20economy%20and%20community%20of%20the%20Upper%20Angara.pdf; 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.