TY - JOUR

T1 - Glacier Recession in the Altai Mountains after the LIA Maximum

AU - Ganyushkin, Dmitry

AU - Chistyakov, Kirill

AU - Derkach, Ekaterina

AU - Bantcev, Dmitriy

AU - Kunaeva, Elena

AU - Terekhov, Anton

AU - Rasputina, Valeria

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2022/3/1

Y1 - 2022/3/1

N2 - The study aims to reconstruct the Altai glaciers at the maximum of the LIA, to estimate the reduction of the Altai glaciers from the LIA maximum to the present, and to analyze glacier reduction rates on the example of the Tavan Bogd mountain range. Research was based on remote sensing and field data. The recent glaciation in the southern part of the Altai is estimated (1256 glaciers with the total area of 559.15 ± 31.13 km2), the area of the glaciers of the whole Altai mountains is estimated at 1096.55 km2. In the southern part of Altai, 2276 glaciers with a total area of 1348.43 ± 56.16 km2 were reconstructed, and the first estimate of the LIA glacial area for the entire Altai mountain system was given (2288.04 km2). Since the LIA, the glaciers decrease by 59% in the southern part of Altai and by 47.9% for the whole Altai. The average increase in ELA in the southern part of Altai was 106 m. The larger increase of ELA in the relatively humid areas was probably caused by a decrease in precipitation. Glaciers in the Tavan Bogd glacial center degraded with higher rates after 1968 relative to the interval between 1850–1968. One of the intervals of fast glacier shrinkage in 2000–2010 was caused by a dry and warm interval between 1989 and 2004. However, the fast decrease in glaciers in 2000–2010 was mainly caused by the shrinkage or disappearance of the smaller glaciers, and large valley glaciers started a fast retreat after 2010. The study results present the first evaluation of the glacier recession of the entire Altai after the LIA maximum.

AB - The study aims to reconstruct the Altai glaciers at the maximum of the LIA, to estimate the reduction of the Altai glaciers from the LIA maximum to the present, and to analyze glacier reduction rates on the example of the Tavan Bogd mountain range. Research was based on remote sensing and field data. The recent glaciation in the southern part of the Altai is estimated (1256 glaciers with the total area of 559.15 ± 31.13 km2), the area of the glaciers of the whole Altai mountains is estimated at 1096.55 km2. In the southern part of Altai, 2276 glaciers with a total area of 1348.43 ± 56.16 km2 were reconstructed, and the first estimate of the LIA glacial area for the entire Altai mountain system was given (2288.04 km2). Since the LIA, the glaciers decrease by 59% in the southern part of Altai and by 47.9% for the whole Altai. The average increase in ELA in the southern part of Altai was 106 m. The larger increase of ELA in the relatively humid areas was probably caused by a decrease in precipitation. Glaciers in the Tavan Bogd glacial center degraded with higher rates after 1968 relative to the interval between 1850–1968. One of the intervals of fast glacier shrinkage in 2000–2010 was caused by a dry and warm interval between 1989 and 2004. However, the fast decrease in glaciers in 2000–2010 was mainly caused by the shrinkage or disappearance of the smaller glaciers, and large valley glaciers started a fast retreat after 2010. The study results present the first evaluation of the glacier recession of the entire Altai after the LIA maximum.

KW - Altai

KW - glaciers

KW - Little Ice Age

KW - reconstruction

KW - retreat

KW - ICE-AGE

KW - EASTERN ALTAI

KW - RETREAT

KW - TROPICAL ANDES

KW - EVOLUTION

KW - INVENTORY

KW - FLUCTUATIONS

KW - EQUILIBRIUM-LINE ALTITUDE

KW - MONGOLIA

KW - CLIMATE

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127212066&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/0e87f2af-5d16-3a7c-9adf-d8e0fc608954/

U2 - 10.3390/rs14061508

DO - 10.3390/rs14061508

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85127212066

VL - 14

JO - Remote Sensing

JF - Remote Sensing

SN - 2072-4292

IS - 6

M1 - 1508

ER -