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
Abstract
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.