Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and natural resources 2018 number 4

A set of climate-induced changes in the typical landscapes of the Siberian taiga at the southern periphery of the permafrost zone is discussed. The results obtained are based on long-term field investigations made in the key areas within the eastern margin of the West Siberian Plain, in the northern part of the Yenisei Ridge and the western Central Siberian Plateau. Analysis of primary climatic data shows that since the early 1980s the mean annual temperature in the boreal areas of Siberia increased by 1-2 ° C against the previous cooling period 1950s-1970s. Winters became warmer and springs and autumns longer. It is established that such changes have influence primarily on the state of ecotone landscapes located in the vicinities of their eco logical borders. A study is made of the boreal landscapes of the permafrost ecotone corresponding zonal-geographically to the natural complexes of the middle taiga. These geosystems are characterized by the highest vulnerability to any external influ ences, which renders them particularly informative for studying the consequences of climate changes. On the basis of using visu ally observed landscape indicators representing complex links between their components, combined with instrumental data, the main trends in geosystem changes in the areas of sporadic and discontinuous high-temperature ice-bounded ground are revealed. These trends are considered in the form of the following response processes observed in the Siberian taiga in the south of the permafrost zone: degradation of ice-bounded ground and intensification of solifluction in dark-coniferous landscapes of glacial plains; local replacement of solifluction with land sliding; melting of goletz ice in kurums; mudding of kurums with fine earth and their further overgrowing with mosses, lichens and small-leaved forests; changes in animal habitats, and deterioration of the worsening conditions for taiga bioresources reproduction, etc.