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Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 18555

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Sergey N. Kirpotin

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Guest Editor

1. Centre for Research into Biota, Climate and Landscapes (BioClimLand), Tomsk State University, 36 Lenin Pr., Tomsk, 634050 Siberia, Russia
2. Tuvan State University, 36 Lenina St, 667000 Kyzyl, Republic of Tuva, Russia
Interests: landscape ecology; Arctic studies; geocryology; remote sensing; plant ecology; biogeochemistry

Dr. Irina I. Volkova

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Guest Editor

Department of Botany, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
Interests: mire science; geobotany; bryology; landscape ecology; nature wise use and conservation

Dr. Anna M. Peregon

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Guest Editor

Science Partners, 42 Quai de Jemmapes, 75010 Paris, France
Interests: climate change in the Northern Eurasia; remote sensing; land cover and land use; carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems: regional, national and global assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Various types of forests and wetlands (including peatlands and marshes, rivers and lakes, deltas, floodplains, and flooded forests) together form a compound mosaic of natural landforms in Siberia.

Siberian wetlands are the largest terrestrial pool of atmospheric carbon, and they perform an important global climate-regulating function. As it was found in recent studies, the wetlands play a role of carbon sink in non-permafrost regions, but they could be a large source of carbon in permafrost regions. The thawing of permafrost makes northern peatlands powerful sources of carbon emissions.

The story of developments, the current state of Siberian wetlands, and future predictions remain hot topics for further studies. While the carbon- and biogeochemical cycles in peatlands have been documented, such aspects remain a blank spot for lakes and river basins, especially in terms of discovering carbon fluxes transported by rivers across lakes and estuaries to the ocean (so-called, land-to-ocean aquatic continuum).

This Special Issue welcomes articles dedicated to all aspects of Siberian wetlands, their formations in the past and their contemporary dynamics, natural wetlands under the pressure of climate change, hydrology in peatlands, human impact on wetlands, regional patterns and their significance at a global scale, as well as the forecast for the future. We intend to devote special attention to the estimation of risks associated with climate extremes, such as water flooding, heat waves, and large-scale peat fires which are projected to play an important role in the dynamics of natural ecosystems in Siberia.

Prof. Dr. Sergey N. Kirpotin
Dr. Irina I. Volkova
Dr. Anna M. Peregon
Guest Editors

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Keywords

wetlands
floodplains
Siberia
sequestration
emission
carbon balance
extreme events

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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26 pages, 5818 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Soil Water Regime, Air Temperature, and Precipitation as the Main Drivers of the Future Greenhouse Gas Emissions from West Siberian Peatlands

by Alexander Mikhalchuk, Yulia Kharanzhevskaya, Elena Burnashova, Evgeniya Nekhoda, Irina Gammerschmidt, Elena Akerman, Sergey Kirpotin, Viktor Nikitkin, Aldynai Khovalyg and Sergey Vorobyev

Water 2023, 15(17), 3056; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15173056 - 26 Aug 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1560

Abstract

This modeling study intended to solve a part of the global scientific problem related to increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere via emissions from terrestrial ecosystems that, along with anthropogenic emissions, make notable contributions to the processes of climate change on the planet. The main stream of CO₂ from natural terrestrial ecosystems is related to the activation of biological processes, such as the production/destruction of plant biomass. In this study, the Wetland-DNDC computer simulation model with a focus on nitrogen and carbon biogeochemical cycles was used to study the effect of hydrothermal conditions on greenhouse gas fluxes in West Siberian peatlands. The study was implemented on the site of the world’s largest pristine wetland/peatland system, the Great Vasyugan Mire (GVM). The study was carried out based on data from permanent measurements at meteo stations and our own in situ measurements of hydrological and thermal parameters on sites, which allowed for testing different scenarios of changes in environmental conditions (temperature, precipitation, groundwater level) together with a change in GHG fluxes. The study revealed the air temperature and the level of groundwater as the main drivers controlling CO₂ fluxes. The study of different scenarios of change in annual air temperature revealed the threshold of change in the wetland/peatland ecosystem from carbon sink to carbon source to the atmosphere to happen with an increase in the average annual air temperature by 3 °C with reference to the average annual air temperature values in 2019. Also, we found that the wetland/peatland ecosystem turned to act as an active carbon sink with about 7 cm increase in annual groundwater level, compared with its base level of −21 cm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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15 pages, 3429 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water Holding Capacity of Some Bryophyta Species from Tundra and North Taiga of the West Siberia

by Irina I. Volkova, Igor V. Volkov, Yana A. Morozova, Viktor A. Nikitkin, Evgenia K. Vishnyakova and Nina P. Mironycheva-Tokareva

Water 2023, 15(14), 2626; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15142626 - 19 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2069

Abstract

Functional traits are a set of characteristics that are expressed in the phenotype of an individual organism as a response to the environment and their impact on the ecosystem’s properties. They are positioned at the crossroads between the response and influence of the organisms, creating a certain interest in functional ecological and evolutionary fields. Due to this unique position, they are divided into two categories: effect functional traits and response functional traits. Effect traits describe the influence of the species on the environment regardless of whether such traits are an adaptive advantage to the individual or not. In Bryophyta, one of the most important effect traits is water holding capacity (WHC), which is their means of regulating ecosystem hydrology. On a global scale, mosses’ WHC is manifested in the slowdown of the large water cycle, in the storage of huge volumes of fresh water by peatlands and in the enormous paludification of Western Siberia. The main goal of our research was to obtain the water holding capacity measurements of tundra and taiga moss species to establish the base and foundation for environmental monitoring in the north of Siberia—the region with the most rapidly changing climate. Both the capacity to hold water within the moss tissues (WHC) and the capacity to hold water externally between the morphological structures (leaves, branches, rhizoids, etc.) (WHCe) were measured. In total, 95 samples of 9 Sphagnum and 5 true mosses species were involved to the research; some species were collected at two or three sampling sites within two natural zones/subzones that gave us the opportunity to compare the WHC along the meridional transection. In average, the northern taiga samples showed slightly higher WHC than tundra samples, probably due to the environmental specifics of the habitat—the taiga habitats were more moist, while the tundra was drier. Overall, in the majority of species, the standard deviation calculation revealed that the variability of WHCe is significantly higher than that of WHC. Such high variability in WHCe may be explained in regard to the morphological features of each individual considerably shifting between the samples of the same species while the anatomical features retain more stable results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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15 pages, 2168 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Productivity of Water Meadows under Haymaking in the Mid-Stream of the Ob River

by Natalia P. Kosykh, Nina P. Mironycheva-Tokareva and Anna M. Peregon

Water 2023, 15(6), 1083; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15061083 - 11 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1556

Abstract

The productivity of water meadows was studied in the middle stream of the Ob River by direct in situ measurements of the live and dead components of phytomass/biomass, the features of the active layer in natural ecosystems, and the patterns of plant organic matter and productivity (NPP) in different plant communities, micro-landscapes, and underlying soils. The study was conducted across different ecosystems along two profiles in the floodplain: (i) in the conditions of haymaking and (ii) in all natural ecosystems. The study revealed drastic changes in floristic composition at two profiles (catenas) both in the structure of plant communities and in productivity/NPP at different levels of the floodplain. The maximum diversity of vegetation was found in pristine natural ecosystems. Haymaking leads to an increase in the part of perennial turf grasses and sedges and decrease in the part of motley grasses. The maximum stocks of above-ground biomass (1450 g/m²) and below-ground biomass (3380 g/m²) were found in topographic depressions dominated by sedges. Haymaking causes pressure on the formation of root systems in dry and wet (swampy) meadows, which in turn leads to a decrease in the below-ground component of plant biomass. The total stock of plant phytomass/biomass increases from the upper points to the lower points in the floodplain profile: from 2991 to 4565 g/m² with haymaking and from 3370 to 4060 g/m² across the natural ecosystems. The NPP decreases by 12% in the upper and by 5% in the middle parts of the catena under haymaking, but it does not change in the lower part of catena as compared to all natural ecosystems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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17 pages, 5791 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Recording Permafrost Thaw and Thaw Lake Degradation in Northern Siberia: School Science in Action

by Sergey Kunin, Olga Semenova, Terry V. Callaghan, Olga Shaduyko and Vladimir Bodur

Water 2023, 15(4), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15040818 - 20 Feb 2023

Viewed by 2060

Abstract

Arctic landscapes are changing dramatically in response to climate changes that are regionally four times faster than the global average. However, these vast lands are sparsely populated and ground-based measurements of environmental change impacts on land and lakes are few compared with the impacted areas. In the Tazovsky District of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, school science has been put into practice for over 20 years to determine thermokarst lake changes and their causes. We describe the contributions of school science in recording these lake changes and also their local impacts as a contribution to the Siberian Environmental Change Network. Describing the process and results are particularly relevant to the generation that will experience the greatest environmental change impacts. In contrast to the use of traditional indigenous knowledge, we report on a conventional science methodology used by local people that further empowers a new generation to determine for themselves the changes in their environment and associated implications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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18 pages, 5354 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pollution and Climatic Influence on Trees in the Siberian Arctic Wetlands

by Viacheslav I. Kharuk, Il’ya A. Petrov, Sergei T. Im, Alexey S. Golyukov, Maria L. Dvinskaya and Alexander S. Shushpanov

Water 2023, 15(2), 215; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15020215 - 4 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2983

Abstract

Siberian Arctic wetlands located within the planetary “warming hotspot” experience pronounced climate-driven vegetation cover changes. Together with warming, wetlands, which are located within the influence of Norilsk copper and nickel industry (69.35° N, 88.12° E), have been strongly influenced by industrial pollutions (sulfur dioxide mostly) since the 1940s. In addition, petroleum products release occurred in 2020 that potentially influenced vegetation vigor. We studied the combined effect of climate warming and pollution on the larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.) and shrubs’ (Salix spp. and alder, Duschekia fruticosa) growth. Using satellite data (MODIS and Sentinel) processing, we mapped wetlands within the study area. We used on-ground survey, and applied dendrochronology, climate variables, and emissions rate analysis. We sampled woods (kerns) and, based on the tree ring analysis, generated trees and shrubs growth index (GI) chronologies. We analyzed the influence of the SO₂ emissions and eco-climate variables (air temperatures, precipitation, soil moisture, and drought index SPEI) on the larch and shrubs GI. We mapped GPP and NPP (gross and net primary productivity) and vegetation index NDVI and temporal trends of these indexes based on the MODIS-derived products. We found that chronic SO₂ influence led to larch trees GI decrease that was followed by tree mortality, which was observed until the end of 1990. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the GI of larch and shrubs has increased, which is correlated with elevated air and soil temperature and growth season prolongation, whereas excessive soil moisture negatively influenced GI. Together with that, increasing trends of vegetation indexes (GPP, NPP, and NDVI) were observed on the part of wetland within the zone of former trees’ heavy damage and mortality. The trends began mostly in 2003–2005 and were caused by emissions volume decrease and warming, together with resistant species’ (willows, graminoids, bushes, and birch) growth and invasion. We suggested that increasing productivity trends might partly be attributed to nitrogen fertilization caused by NOx emissions. Finally, we found that diesel fuel spill which happened in 2020 caused no influence on the larch, whereas some aquatic species (mosses mostly) were damaged. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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12 pages, 3054 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Variability of the Carbon Isotope Composition of Peat-Forming Plants during the Biochemical Transformation

by Evgeniya Golovatskaya, Liliya Nikonova, Galina Simonova and Daria Kalashnikova

Water 2022, 14(24), 4035; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14244035 - 10 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1521

Abstract

In this study, we describe the variation in δ¹³C value in the litter of two species of peat-forming plants: Sphagnum fuscum and Eriophorum vaginatum, during 3 years of field decomposition in oligotrophic bog ecosystems drained for the purpose of forest melioration and fire affected and at the stage of post-pyrogenic restoration. Litterbags were periodically retrieved in the autumn and the δ¹³C value in the residual litter was related to mass loss, litter chemistry, and hydrothermal conditions. Sph. fuscum decomposes much more slowly than E. vaginatum. Low rate of transformation for Sph. fuscum is observed in drained and post-pyrogenic sites, while for E. vaginatum minimal rate of transformation is observed in the native site. During the decomposition of Sphagnum residues, ¹³C enrichment occurs, and during the decomposition of E. vaginatum, we observed ¹²C enrichment. The changes in the isotope composition of carbon for investigation sites are insignificant for Sphagnum fuscum, but it was observed for E. vaginatum, the largest of ¹³C depletion is observed in the drained site (−28.3‰) and minimal in the postpyrogenic site (−27.4‰). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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15 pages, 1342 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Dissolved Nutrients in the Yenisei River

by Irina V. Tokareva and Anatoly S. Prokushkin

Water 2022, 14(23), 3935; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14233935 - 3 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2046

Abstract

The accelerated rates of warming in high latitudes lead to permafrost degradation, enhance nutrient cycling and intensify the transport of terrestrial materials to the Arctic rivers. The quantitative estimation of riverine nutrient flux on seasonal and spatial scales is important to clarify the ongoing changes in land–ocean connectivity in the Arctic domain. This study is focused on a multiyear (2015–2021) analysis of concentrations of dissolved nutrients in the Yenisei River. Applying stationary water sampling, we studied seasonal variations in concentrations of phosphate, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia ions in the Yenisei River in the upper (56.0° N), middle (60.9° N) and lower (67.4° N) sections of the river. The waters of the upper river section demonstrated significant and steady nutrient enrichment throughout the hydrological year, reflecting the influence of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir. The downstream reaches of the Yenisei River had more apparent seasonal patterns of nutrient concentrations. Particularly, winter-season nutrient levels in the middle and lower river sections were the highest during the hydrological year and close to the upper section. At snowmelt, and especially the summer–fall seasons, all inorganic nutrient concentrations dropped dramatically after the inflow of the Angara River. On the other hand, the peak nitrite content observed during the early spring flood was most pronounced in the lower section of the river basin, reflecting the specific characteristics of the nitrogen cycle in permafrost soils. The spring flood plays the major role in the annual nutrient fluxes, except for nitrates, for which the maximum occurred in the winter season. The summer–fall season, despite its duration and considerable water runoff, demonstrated the lowest fluxes of dissolved inorganic phosphorus and nitrogen in comparison to other periods of the hydrological year, suggesting strong biological uptake and chemostasis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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20 pages, 6815 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Challenges of Changing Water Sources for Human Wellbeing in the Arctic Zone of Western Siberia

by Elena Bogdanova, Andrey Lobanov, Sergei V. Andronov, Andrey Soromotin, Andrei Popov, Anatoly V. Skalny, Olga Shaduyko and Terry V. Callaghan

Water 2023, 15(8), 1577; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15081577 - 18 Apr 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3319

Abstract

The availability of clean drinking water impacts the quality of life of Arctic populations and is affected by climate change. We provide perceptions based on: (1) a study of the accessibility of the natural surface water to the nomadic and settled Indigenous inhabitants living in rural areas (in settlements and remote camps) in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia during climate change and industrial development; (2) an assessment of the impact of consuming different surface water resources on human health. We include primary data sources from medical examinations and surveys collected in the regions between the rivers of Ob, Nadym, Taz, and Yenisey in 2012, 2014–2019, and 2022 whereas the chemical analysis of the surface waters in the region was based on previous research. A total of 552 local residents from the Arctic zone of Western Siberia participated in the study. We discuss how the availability of high-quality drinking water is limited for them due to climatic and anthropogenic risks, despite the abundant water resources. The consumption of river water is associated with high health risks since it contains heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Mn, Fe), whereas the consumption of lake ice melt water likely affects health because of the low concentrations of beneficial ions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on Wetland Ecosystems in Siberia: Past, Present, and Future)

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