A team of scientists from the Northwest Institute of Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied changes in the cryosphere in the Altai Mountains in China from 2000 to 2021 and their effects on regional water resources. The results of the study were published in the scientific journal magazine CATENA.
Experts relied on remote sensing data, ground-based stationary observations, and results of field reconnaissance.
Researchers found that glaciers in China’s Altai Mountains have been shrinking and thinning since 2000 due to rising temperatures and increased snowfall.
It also found that snow depth in the Altai Mountains on the border with China increased significantly from 2000 to 2021, but the snow cover area tended to decrease slightly.
Additionally, the study showed a decrease in permafrost area in the mountains of the Chinese region of Altai.
Overall, the contribution of cryosphere elements of the Chinese Altai to the flow of the Irtysh River was about 41.9%. Of these, the largest impact on the water level in the Irtysh is due to meltwater from the snow cover – about 37.1%. This is followed by glacial meltwater (about 3.4%), and permafrost provides about 0.6% of river flow.
Russian scientists before I learnedHe said glaciers in the Altai Mountains have decreased by half in a century and a half.
Source: Gazeta
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