Climate Changes and the Selenga River Chemical Flow

摘要

The global warming that affects changes in hydro-logical processes and climate in the Baikal region [1,2] also influences reorganization of other regional natural phenomena, which are able to disturb the ecosystem of Lake Baikal. One such phenomenom is the influx of dissolved and suspended particulate matter transported by the Selenga River, its main water stream. We have analyzed changes in the chemical flow at the transition between the last and current centuries. As is known, the warming that started in the mid-1970s was more distinct in the Baikal region than elsewhere on Earth, on average, particularly during the winter and spring seasons [1-3]. The analysis of annual air temperature and moisture values in the Baikal basin reveals their ambiguous trends during different periods. Until the mid-1970s, they fluctuated in the counterphase manner, while through the 1980s these parameters grew in parallel [1]. Since the mid-1990s, the temperature growth terminated, although its values remained at the elevated level.