Glacier changes in the Siberian Altai Mountains, Ob river basin, (1952–2006) estimated with high resolution imagery

Abstract

The Siberian Altai covers about 70% of the area of all south Siberian glaciers, which provide fresh water to the upper tributaries of the Ob and Yenisey rivers. The observed air temperature has increased by 1.2 • C over northern Eurasia during the last 120 years, affecting the degradation of the Siberian Altai glaciers. In this study, we estimated glacier area changes in the Aktru River basin (44.8 km 2 ), located in the central Altai mountains. We used the 1952, 1966, 1975 and 2006 remote sensed images with 0.6-3.0 m spatial resolution (aerial photographs, Corona and PRISM satellite images) and differential GPS (DGPS) data. From 1952 to 2006, the total glacier area in the Aktru basin shrank by 7.2% (1.2 km 2 ). During the last three decades, the rate of glacier area loss increased by a factor of 1.8, thus resembling trends in other mountain systems of Eurasia (Alps, Tien Shan). The glacier area changes were caused mainly by increase of summer air temperature by 1.03 • C (from 1951 to 2000) at elevations below 2500 m, which intensified the melt of the glacier's ice in the ablation zone. At elevations above 2500 m (upper accumulation zone), the summer air temperature increased by only 0.83 • C.

Glacier retreat and climatic variability in the eastern Terskey–Alatoo, inner Tien Shan between the middle of the 19th century and beginning of the 21st century

“…Accumulation on such glaciers depends primarily on snow drift and their behavior is determined by local conditions rather than climatic variations. The overriding importance of local conditions for the behavior of small glaciers has also been noted by Surazakov et al (2007) for the Altai.…”

Recent changes of two selected glaciers in Hami Prefecture of eastern Xinjiang and their impact on water resources

“…The glacier runoff derived from changes of glaciers is an important source of fresh water to support the sustained development of the ecological environment, industry, and agriculture of downstream counties in arid regions (Fountain and Tangborn, 1985;Braithwaite and Olesen, 1988;Aizen et al, 1995Aizen et al, , 1996Kaser et al, 2010;Immerzeel et al, 2010Immerzeel et al, , 2012Jacob et al, 2012;Sorg et al, 2012). Glacier changes including area, length, thickness and volume in the Tianshan Mountains and several other regions are known in detail from aerial photographs, topographic maps, remote sensing images, and in-situ observation data Haeberli et al, 2007;Paul et al, 2007;Surzakov et al, 2007;Bolch et al, 2010;Narama et al, 2010;Li et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2011aWang et al, , 2013Wang et al, , 2014.…”

Environmental context and adaptations of prehistoric and early historical occupation in the Southern Altai (SW Siberia–East Kazakhstan)

“…This leads to the regional bio-geographic transformations, aridification of the mountain steppes, altitudinal treeline migration and a mountain biotopes' restructuring (Chlachula 2005). Increased summer temperature as well as MAT causes a progressing glacier ablation and ice retreat, and generates insular permafrost thaw on the uplands Narozhnyy and Nikitin 2003;Surazakov et al 2007;Shangedanova et al 2010;Narozhnyy and Zemtsov 2011;Ganyushkin et al 2017). This trend has a marked impact to the present-day Altai's ecosystems as well as the geo-environmental contexts of archaeological sites.…”