Impact of climate warming on vegetation cover and permafrost in West Siberia northern taiga

Abstract

The goal of this study is to reveal the impact of climate warming on vegetation and permafrost in ecosystems of West Siberia permafrost zone. Changes of various ecosystem components—microrelief, vegetation and soil covers, active layer thickness, soil and permafrost temperature, exogenous geological processes—are investigated. The impact of increase of air temperature and the amount of atmospheric precipitation on the development of northern taiga ecosystems is monitored. Results of ecosystem changes under the impact of climatic changes are presented.The ecosystems are detected, in which the local permafrost temperature decrease caused by dynamics of vegetation cover observed on a background of the general tendency of temperature increase.