Scientists at Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) have created the world's largest database on the average monthly water temperature in the rivers of the Russian Arctic, the university's press service reported.
Studies of the thermal regime of rivers in Russia and the world have only been actively conducted in recent decades, while scientists are experiencing a shortage of data, especially on the temperature of rivers in the Arctic zone.
MSU specialists not only collected them, but also analyzed the peculiarities of the variability of this indicator, taking into account climate change and anthropogenic impact.
"The hydrological database includes data from 287 hydrological posts for the period from 1961 to 2022. Such an array made it possible to statistically assess the presence of trends, calculate differences in average values, and also evaluate trends in different time periods," said Natalia Frolova, Head of the Department of Land Hydrology at the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University.
Based on these results, scientists have created maps of temperature changes in rivers for the entire Russian Arctic, specifying the causes of fluctuations, tass.ru reports.
"We were able to show that air temperature is the leading factor in the formation of water temperature, which was expected, but its role is significantly complemented by various physical and geographical factors and, first of all, the spread of permafrost in catchments," the scientist said.
Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished
