IS CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTING GROUND WATER CHEMISTRY IN THE LARGEST BOREAL WETLAND?

Boreal wetlands cover approximately 30% of the West Siberian Plain. The Great Vasuygan Mire, Northern Hemisphere’s largest contiguous wetlands, occupies low-lying plains in the interfluve of two great Siberian rivers Ob and Irtysh. Most research to date has investigated the peat generating processes and reserves in the West-Siberian Plain wetlands, or the balance of greenhouse gases emissions from the wetlands. Little information exists about temporal changes in the chemical composition of the wetland waters within the Ob-Irtysh interfluve. Although the region’s climate is continental with extended cold winters and short hot summers, Western Siberia is experiencing rapid climatic changes. The consequences of these changes include permafrost loss, snow cover reduction, and river flow changes. In this study we investigate whether and how increasing surface air temperatures contributed to changes in the chemical composition of the atmospheric precipitation and water in the mire. We use time-series analysis and multivariate statistics on the hydrochemical data collected between 1994 and 2013 at several sampling sites, to evaluate the statistical significance of the possible correlations between the increasing surface air temperatures and various chemical constituents in the precipitation and the wetland water.

Acknowledgement: the senior author was supported during this project by Fulbright Foundation Scholarship 2013-14.