Influence of anthropogenic activities on the temperature regime of soils of the South-Western Baikal region

Abstract

Soil temperature is a key factor controlling many biotic and abiotic processes in soils. Monitoring of the soil temperature in the different habitats is an urgent task, as a rare meteorological network does not allow to assess in detail the hydrothermal regime of different territories. The territory of the study is the Tunka intermountain basin – the area of discontinuous distribution of permafrost. The atmospheric-soil measuring complex was used to investigate the hydrothermal regime of soils. Observations were carried out in automatic mode with a step of 1 hour from 2011 to 2018 year in the soil profiles from the surface to 10 m depth. The studied areas at different times undergo various anthropogenic impacts. It leads to changes in the vegetation cover, morphology structure and granulometric composition of the soils, its temperature and moisture conditions. Thus, the soils at anthropogenically disturbed sites are better warmed up and cools down faster than on undisturbed areas. The depth of the isotherm of +10°C on average is more than 50 cm deep on anthropogenically disturbed areas and the greatest negative temperatures are observed here. The depth of freezing and the magnitude of negative temperatures are directly related to the level of mire waters in the peaty soils. If the water level of the mire increases, as a result of human intervention, the depth of thawing decreased by 20 cm and the winter peat deposit became warmer.

Overview: Recent advances on the understanding of the Northern Eurasian environments and of the urban air quality in China - Pan Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) program perspective

“…Kukkonen et al (2020) found that the permafrost thawed most rapidly in low-porosity soils, whereas high-porosity soils in the top layer (e.g., peatland) will retard thawing considerably. Similarly, the depth of a seasonally frozen layer and the temperature regime of peat soils in the oligotrophic bog in the southern taiga zone of Western Siberia showed significant differences at sites with high and low levels of bog waters (Kiselev et al, 2019). Both Kukkonen et al (2020) and Kiselev et al (2019) results are in line with previous conclusions on the importance of volumetric water content and unfrozen water content for soil thermal properties governing heat transfer and phase change processes (Romanovsky and Osterkamp, 2000).…”

“…Similarly, the depth of a seasonally frozen layer and the temperature regime of peat soils in the oligotrophic bog in the southern taiga zone of Western Siberia showed significant differences at sites with high and low levels of bog waters (Kiselev et al, 2019). Both Kukkonen et al (2020) and Kiselev et al (2019) results are in line with previous conclusions on the importance of volumetric water content and unfrozen water content for soil thermal properties governing heat transfer and phase change processes (Romanovsky and Osterkamp, 2000). Locally, the sites with thin snow cover (e.g., hill tops) demonstrated higher resistance to the thawing (Williams and Smith, 1989;Kukkonen et al, 2020).…”

Overview: Recent advances in the understanding of the northern Eurasian environments and of the urban air quality in China – a Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) programme perspective

“…Similarly, the depth of a seasonally frozen layer and the temperature regime of peat soils in the oligotrophic bog in the southern taiga zone of West Siberia showed significant differences between the sites with high and low levels of bog waters (Kiselev et al, 2019). Both Kukkonen et al (2020) and Kiselev et al (2019) results are in line with previous conclusions on the importance of volumetric water content and unfrozen water content for soil thermal properties governing heat transfer and phase change processes (Romanovsky and Osterkamp, 2000). Locally, the sites with a thin snow cover (e.g.…”

Post-fire restoration of pine forests in the Badary area, Tunkinskiy National Park, Russia

“…Issues related to the causes, scales and consequences of the wildfire impact on the landscapes receive a high attention in the literature (Akharzhanova, 2004;Elaev et al, 2013;Lazareva & Afonina, 2014;Ivanyo et al, 2017;Kiselev et al, 2019;Maksyutova et al, 2019). In these sources, fluctuation features of the long-term wildfire activity are revealed; factors of their occurrence are indicated; ecosystem characteristics at fire-damaged areas are presented at the initial stage of regeneration.…”