Features of the natural environment of the Tea Road corridor in the context of the climate change

Abstract

Low-water period in the basin of Lake Baikal began in the middle 90s of the 20 century. A statistically significant trend in temperature increase and decrease in precipitation is established. The analysis of water inflow in Lake Baikal is performed. It is established that the Baikal level practically directly depends on the water content of the Selenga river. Dendrochronological reconstruction of the Selenga river run-off was carried out. In recent decades, a statistically significant trend towards the descent of the river run-off with the analysis of air temperature and atmospheric precipitation in the whole basin in the Russian part of the basin has been identified. The meridional transect (E 105-107, N 51-44) is chosen for the investigation, covering all arid climatic zones. A set of methods for remote sensing, geoinformation technologies and in-situ surveys of geosystems with the implementation of landscape, geobotanical and soil studies, mapping of vegetation of model polygons and key sites were used. A spatio-temporal assessment of the state of natural-anthropogenic geosystemsis carried out, criteria, indicators and tendencies of their dynamics are determined in connection with the processes of land degradation and desertification.