Ural Mountain Region Research Articles

Climate extremes in Svalbard over the last two millennia are linked to atmospheric blocking

Arctic precipitation in the form of rain is forecast to become more prevalent in a warmer world but with seasonal and interannual changes modulated by natural modes of variability. Experiencing rapid hydroclimatic changes in the Arctic, Svalbard serves as an ideal study location due to its exposure to oceanic and atmospheric variability in the North Atlantic region. Here we use climate data from paleoproxies, observations, and a climate model to demonstrate that wet and warm extremes in Svalbard over the last two millennia are linked to the presence of atmospheric blocking regimes over Scandinavia and the Ural mountain region. Rainfall episodes lead to the deposition of coarse sediment particles and high levels of calcium in Linnévatnet, a lake in southwest Svalbard, with the coarsest sediments consistently deposited during atmospheric blocking events. A unique annually resolved sediment record from Linnévatnet confirms that this linkage has been persistent over the past 2000 years. Our record also shows that a millennial-scale decline in Svalbard precipitation ended around the middle of the 19th century, followed by several unprecedented extreme events in recent years. As warming continues and sea ice recedes, future Svalbard floods will become more intense during episodes of Scandinavian and Ural blocking.

Diversity of Cyanobacteria and Algae in Biological Soil Crusts of the Northern Ural Mountain Region Assessed through Morphological and Metabarcoding Approaches

In mountain regions, biological soil crusts (BSCs) provide essential ecological services by being involved in primary production and nitrogen fixation. Eukaryotic algae and cyanobacteria are important photosynthetic components of these unique cryptogamic communities. Here, we present an overview of the eukaryotic and prokaryotic diversity of such phototrophs in BSCs in the mountain tundra of the northern Ural Mountains. Such assessment is based on morphological surveys and the first metabarcoding analysis in the region. In total, 166 taxa of Cyanobacteria and 256 eukaryotic algae (including Euglenophyta, Ochrophyta, Dinophyta, Bacillariophyta, Chlorophyta, and Charophyta) were identified. For the first time, 86 taxa new to the BSCs of the high-mountain belt of the region were discovered. Considering species composition, Cyanobacteria and Chlorophyta are the most abundant taxa in all the analyzed BSCs. The genera Nostoc, Coccomyxa, Chlamydomonas, Leptolyngbya, Stenomitos, Pycnacronema, Stigonema, and Eunotia had the highest number of taxonomic units. These groups shape the structure, function, and ecology of the BSC communities in the studied region. Our results show that BSCs in the tundras of the Ural Mountains have a high active and passive biodiversity of terrestrial cyanobacteria and algae. Both implemented methods resulted in similar results with a comparable number of algae and cyanobacteria species per sample. Metabarcoding could be implemented in future in the region to accurately screen photosynthetic organisms in BSCs.

The first annually resolved analysis of slash-and-burn practices in the boreal Eurasia suggests their strong climatic and socio-economic controls

Slash-and-burn (SAB) was a widespread agricultural practice across large parts of the boreal region until the early 20th century. Despite its paramount importance in the procurement of food and particularly in supporting frontier populations of settlers during the colonization of the Eurasian boreal zone, analyses of spatial and temporal patterns in the use of SAB at annual and sub-annual scales are currently missing. We present the first such analysis of climatic and social controls of SAB practices in a remote region in the northern Ural mountains from 1880 to 1894. We observed a significant positive correlation between the total number of burns and the village population (p = 0.005, R2 = 0.26), indicating that the frequency of burns directly reflected the local demand for food. The amount of agricultural land, regarded as a cumulative measure of burning activity over multiple decades, showed a strong positive correlation with the village population (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.60). This result supported our interpretation of burns as an important food procurement tool, probably also positively affected by higher labour availability in larger villages. Villages where the number of burns were higher than predicted by the “the population vs. burns” regression tended (p = 0.15) to have larger areas of arable land than predicted by the “population vs. arable land” regression. This pattern implied that variability in the local environmental and/or socio-economic settings of the villages made some of them more (or otherwise less) favourable for agricultural activities based on SAB. Most reported burns occurred in June and July. The three years with the maximum number of reported burns had a tendency to be wetter during these months when compared to the same period during an “average” year (p = 0.19). The pattern suggested that farmers preferred conducting burns during years with a below-average climatological fire hazard. An earlier start of the fire season favoured burning activity (p = 0.10 R2 = 0.33), while its later ending had no significant effect on the number of burns (p = 0.53). Our study documented strong climatic controls of SAB practices at the annual scale and their social controls at above-annual scales. These patterns emerged despite the common use of slash-and-burn to mitigate generally limited food availability in the northern Ural mountain region and likely conservative estimates of these practices in available records.

Statistical Characteristics of Blocking High in the Ural Mountains during Winters and Relationship with Changes in Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice

A blocking high in the Ural Mountains, which is recognized as the third major blocking high area in the northern hemisphere, describes a deep warm high-pressure system superimposed on the westerly belt. Based on the ERA-5 daily reanalysis data (the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts atmospheric reanalysis global climate dataset) and using the Tibaldi and Molteni (TM) method, we selected 43 blocking high events in the Ural Mountains during the extended winters of 1979–2020 and analyzed their atmospheric circulation characteristics and influencing factors. Our findings revealed a downward trend in the frequency of occurrence of blocking highs in the Ural Mountains in winter, most of them were short-lived; furthermore, the frequency and duration of these occurrences generally followed a 3–4 years oscillating cycle. The synthetic results of the geopotential height (HGT) anomaly field and the surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly field of these 43 extended wintertime blocking high events in the Ural Mountains region showed that during the development of a blocking high, the central intensity of the positive anomalies in the Ural Mountains region first increased and then weakened, while the central intensity and meridional span of the negative anomalies in the Eurasian mid-latitudes of the SAT anomaly field increased continuously. In addition, abnormally high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic sea area and abnormal reduction of sea ice (SI) in the Barents-Kara Sea and the Chukchi Sea in autumn had a significant impact on the wintertime formation of Ural Mountains blocking highs. In contrast, in autumn, the abnormal reduction of SI in the Barents-Kara and Chukchi Seas might also have led to the westward positioning of Ural Mountains blocking highs.

The Role of Tibetan Plateau–Indian Ocean Thermal Contrast in the Significant Increasing Precipitation over the Southern Tibetan Plateau in May after the Mid-1990s

Abstract This study investigates the impact of the interannual variation of Tibetan Plateau (TP)–Indian Ocean thermal contrast on southern TP precipitation in May and its changes in the mid-1990s. It is found that the southern TP precipitation is closely related to the TP–Indian Ocean thermal contrast, which could be represented by a thermal contrast index (TCI). The analysis reveals that the southern TP precipitation in May increases significantly after 1996. Meanwhile, the TCI also enhances notably. It is also found that compared with the period in 1979–96 (P1), the relationship between the southern TP precipitation and the TCI is more pronounced in 1997–2014 (P2). Further analysis shows that the meridional water vapor flux anomaly over the Arabian Sea (ABS_QV) acts as a linkage between the southern TP precipitation and the TCI. During P2, associated with the positive ABS_QV, positive water vapor flux anomalies emerge over the Arabian Sea and divide into two branches to the southwest of TP. One branch transports the moisture to the southern TP directly and forms a stronger southwesterly anomaly at the southwest edge of the TP than P1. The other branch stretches northward and imposes positive diabatic heating (Q1) anomalies over the Ural Mountains region (UMR_Q1). The results obtained by composite analysis and an anomaly atmospheric general circulation model both confirm that the UMR_Q1 anomalies can induce the wave activity propagating from the UMR_Q1 area to the TP and form the northerly anomaly over the TP, contributing to the convergence that favors the southern TP precipitation.

Осетинский след в Приуралье

The analysis of late Iranian loanwords in Finno-Ugric languages spoken in the Ural Mountains region demonstrates that there is no specifically Scythian-Sarmatian layer of borrowings in these languages. The representative group of loanwords reflects contact with the Ossetic language in particular.

A permineralized thamnopteroid rhizome (Osmundaceae) with coprolites from the Permian of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China: The most primitive record of Osmundaceae in Asia

The earliest and most primitive fossil trunk or rhizome taxa of the family Osmundaceae, as important evidence for understanding its early evolutionary history, have so far all come from the Permian of the Ural Mountains region of European Russia. In this study, a thamnopteroid rhizome fossil, one of the most primitive members of the Osmundaceae, is reported from the Permian of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China, based on a permineralized rhizome fragment consisting of the cortex and petiole bases with coprolites. This is the first report of a thamnopteroid rhizome found outside the Ural Mountains region since the previous thamnopteroid rhizome was described more than 90 years ago. Still, all known thamnopteroid trunks and rhizomes, i.e., from the Ural Mountains region and Heilongjiang Province, occurred within the realm of the Angara flora during the Permian. The fossil records suggest that the Angaraland is perhaps the cradle for the early diversification of the Osmundaceae (first family of Osmundales), while the Cathaysia is an important region for the early diversification of the Guaireaceae (another family of Osmundales). The fossil studied herein is the most primitive and earliest record of the Osmundaceae in Asia. For the Mesozoic of Asia, four genera of trunks and rhizomes of Osmundaceae have been found in the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Northeast China and the Cretaceous of the Rajmahal Hills of India. The new fossil serves as crucial evidence for the diversification of the Osmundaceae in Asia from the Paleozoic. The occurrence of coprolites in the parenchyma of the petiole base indicates that Osmundaceae rhizomes were favorable hosts for arthropods and provided a suitable environment for their parasitism

Mechanisms and predictability of sudden stratospheric warming in winter 2018

Abstract. In the beginning of February 2018 a rapid deceleration of the westerly circulation in the polar Northern Hemisphere stratosphere took place, and on 12 February the zonal-mean zonal wind at 60° N and 10 hPa reversed to easterly in a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event. We investigate the role of the tropospheric forcing in the occurrence of the SSW, its predictability and teleconnection with the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) by analysing the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ensemble forecast. The SSW was preceded by significant synoptic wave activity over the Pacific and Atlantic basins, which led to the upward propagation of wave packets and resulted in the amplification of a stratospheric wavenumber 2 planetary wave. The dynamical and statistical analyses indicate that the main tropospheric forcing resulted from an anticyclonic Rossby wave breaking, subsequent blocking and upward wave propagation in the Ural Mountains region, in agreement with some previous studies. The ensemble members which predicted the wind reversal also reasonably reproduced this chain of events, from the horizontal propagation of individual wave packets to upward wave-activity fluxes and the amplification of wavenumber 2. On the other hand, the ensemble members which failed to predict the wind reversal also failed to properly capture the blocking event in the key region of the Urals and the associated intensification of upward-propagating wave activity. Finally, a composite analysis suggests that teleconnections associated with the record-breaking MJO phase 6 observed in late January 2018 likely played a role in triggering this SSW event.

Genetic polymorphism in Siberian stone pine (Pinus sibirica Du Tour) populations from Ural and Altai-Sayan mountains

The article presents the results of analysis of the variability of 23 allozyme loci in 10 populations of Siberian Stone pine. Populations from South Siberia mountain regions had higher percentage of polymorphic loci in averageand mean number of alleles per loci (P99% = 44,57 %, NA = 1,543 ± 0,014) compared to Ural populations (P99%=29,57%,NA = 1,348 ± 0,015). The average values of the observed and expected heterozygosity in the populations of the Altai-Sayan (HO = 0,087 ±0,007 and HE = 0,090 ± 0,004) and the Ural mountain region (HO = 0,083 ± 0,008 и HE = 0,082 ± 0,005)were close. About 8.4% of the total genetic diversity is due to differences between the studied populations. The results ofmultidimensional data analysis confirm the existence of the Altai-Sayan and Ural refugia in the post-glacial period andthe dispersal of Siberian stone pine to the North from the Ural glacier refugium.

Decadal variability of northern Asian winter monsoon shaped by the 11-year solar cycle

Climate signals associated with 11-year sunspot cycle have been extensively studied in various regions of the northern hemisphere, but the precise mechanisms remain elusive. Asian winter monsoon (AWM) is the most powerful circulation system on the Earth, yet its relationship with the 11-year solar cycle has not been explored. Here the response of AWM to the 11-year solar forcing is explored by analysis of numerical experiment results obtained from the Community Earth System Model-Last Millennium Ensemble (CESM-LME) modeling project. We show that a strong 11-year solar cycle can excite a resonant response of the intrinsic leading mode of the AWM variability, resulting in a significant signal of decadal variation. The leading mode, characterized by a warm Arctic and cold Siberia, responds to the maximum solar irradiance with a peculiar 3 to 4-year delay. We propose a new mechanism to explain this delayed response, in which the 11-year solar cycle affects the AWM via modulating Arctic sea ice variation during the preceding summer. At the peak of the accumulative solar irradiance (i.e., 4 years after the maximum solar irradiance), the Arctic sea ice concentration reaches a minimum over the Barents–Kara Sea region accompanied by an Arctic sea surface warming, which then persists into the following winter, causing Arctic high-pressure extend to the Ural mountain region, which enhances Siberian High and causes a bitter winter over the northern Asia.

Традиции Петербургской композиторской школы в оперном творчестве для детей уральского композитора Л. Б. Никольской

Lyubov Borisovna Nikolskaya (1909–1984) was a composer, music researcher and music teacher, who graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, where she majored in composition (having studied with Maximilian Steinberg) and musicology (as a student of Semyon Ginzburg). The main period of her creative activity was during the years 1947–1984, when she worked at the Urals State M. P. Mussorgsky Conservatory, having traversed the path from a teacher to a professor at the music theory and composition departments. Lyubov Nikolskaya became the founder of the tradition of composition of children's operas in the Ural Mountains region. She composed about ten children's operas based on literary works by writers from the Ural Mountains region of the previous century (“The Silver Hoof” by Pavel Bazhov, “The Devushka-Semidelushka” by Elena Khorinskaya, etc.). A weighty position in them is held by the domain of fairytale-fantastic imagery. In the realization of her fantastic imagery Nikolskaya relies on the traditions of the St. Petersburg Compositional School of the 19th and early 20th centuries, presented by such significant composers as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatoly Lyadov, Nikolai Tcherepnin and others. The aforementioned refers to the features of the dramaturgy of the libretto, interpretation of stage images, the specificity of the use of the means of harmony, counterpoint, texture, and orchestral-timbre color, which is perceived in the musical vocabulary of her opera compositions examined in this article. Keywords: Lyubov Nikolskaya, children's operas, the traditions of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Urals Composer School, Pavel Bazhov.

Y-chromosomal connection between Hungarians and geographically distant populations of the Ural Mountain region and West Siberia

Hungarians who live in Central Europe today are one of the westernmost Uralic speakers. Despite of the proposed Volga-Ural/West Siberian roots of the Hungarian language, the present-day Hungarian gene pool is highly similar to that of the surrounding Indo-European speaking populations. However, a limited portion of specific Y-chromosomal lineages from haplogroup N, sometimes associated with the spread of Uralic languages, link modern Hungarians with populations living close to the Ural Mountain range on the border of Europe and Asia. Here we investigate the paternal genetic connection between these spatially separated populations. We reconstruct the phylogeny of N3a4-Z1936 clade by using 33 high-coverage Y-chromosomal sequences and estimate the coalescent times of its sub-clades. We genotype close to 5000 samples from 46 Eurasian populations to show the presence of N3a4-B539 lineages among Hungarians and in the populations from Ural Mountain region, including Ob-Ugric-speakers from West Siberia who are geographically distant but linguistically closest to Hungarians. This sub-clade splits from its sister-branch N3a4-B535, frequent today among Northeast European Uralic speakers, 4000–5000 ya, which is in the time-frame of the proposed divergence of Ugric languages.

Почему Д. Н. Мамин-Сибиряк стал главным детским писателем (к проблеме становления канона русской детской литературы)

The last part of the 19th century has seen an increasing number of writers who made children the addressees of their literary works. This process lead to the formation of a particular hierarchy among those writers. Suchhierarchical approach to literature for the young was performed by the pedagogues who discussed the values of literary works addressed at children on the pages of their professional journals. These discussions influenced the formation of the national canon of children’s literature in the 19 th century Russia. The article explores major directions in the creation of the writers’ acceptability for the children’s canon: their personal qualities, their artistic abilities, and creative styles. Special attention is given to the discursive mechanisms that assisted in constructing the writer’s acceptability into this newly formed canon, such as, for example, an exclusion of “adult” writers from it or the process of imposing specific qualities on those who happened towrite for children. There were precisely those qualities (love for children and nature, a realistic description of the world, populist values, and attention to exotic details of life in the Ural mountain region) that made Mamin-Sibiriak into the well-recognized premier representative of the Russian children’s literature canon. Keywords: D. N. Mamin-Sibiriak, children’s literature, national literary canon, pedagogical critique of children’s literature, realism, regionalism.

Further revision of the genus Bythotrephes Leydig (Crustacea: Cladocera: Onychopoda): redescription of B. brevimanus Lilljeborg, reevaluation of B. cederströmii Schödler, and description of a new species of the genus.

Two species of the genus Bythotrephes Leydig, B. brevimanus Lilljeborg and B. cederstrӧmii Schӧdler, are analysed. The former of them is redescribed on the basis of type material and other materials from Northern Europe while the latter one is reevaluated, in comparison with the previous recent investigation which was based on limited material being not enough for the adequate species assessment. The species under consideration were investigated with the application of detailed morphological analysis, including intra- and interpopulation variability and the original scheme of morphometric measurements. The lectotype and paralectotypes of B. brevimanus were selected. Both species are characterized by considerable morphological variability which was especially prominent in taxonomically important features, such as structure and armament of thoracic limbs of first pair (tl I), caudal process, and claws of postabdomen and caudal process. It was concluded that the taxonomic identification of such variable units like B. brevimanus, B. cederstrӧmii and hybrid forms close to the latter species should be based only on comparison of sets of specimens of particular populations; the usage of single specimens can lead to incorrect results. Pedogenesis, in B. brevimanus and in family Cercopagididae in general, was recorded and described for the first time.A new species, B. lilljeborgi, is described based on material from Southern Sweden and Norway. It differs from the closely related species B. longimanus and B. brevimanus in number and size of claws of postabdomen and caudal process.The ranges of the above considered species overlap, especially prominently in North-Western Europe where all three species under consideration co-occur. B. brevimanus dominates in the Circumbaltic region and eastward through Central European Russia and the Ural Mountain region, possibly to the Yenisei River which requires further confirmation. B. cederstrӧmii is distributed further to the east, being recorded in Central Yakutia (Eastern Siberia). Data on co-occurrence of Bythotrephes species are limited and not always adequate because identification of taxa was often confused. Based on the information contained in the present paper, in particular the reevaluation of B. cederstrӧmii taxonomy, it may be suggested that both interspecific hybrid forms and B. cederstrӧmii s. str. could have invaded North American inland waters.

Atmospheric circulation patterns which promote winter Arctic sea ice decline

The impact of winter atmospheric blocking over the Ural Mountains region (UB) coincident with different phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on the sea ice variability over the Barents and Kara Seas (BKS) in winter is investigated. It is found that the UB in conjunction with the positive phase of the NAO (NAO+) leads to the strongest sea ice decline. During this phase composites and trajectory analyses reveal an efficient moisture pathway to the BKS from the mid-latitude North Atlantic near the Gulf Stream Extension region where water vapor is abundant due to high sea surface temperatures. The NAO+-UB combination is an optimal circulation pattern that significantly increases the BKS water vapor that plays a major role in the BKS warming and sea ice reduction, while the increased sensible and latent heat fluxes play secondary roles. By contrast, much fewer dramatic impacts on the BKS are observed when the UB coincides with the neutral or negative phases of the NAO.Our results present new insights into the complex processes involved with Arctic sea ice reduction and warming. The mechanisms highlighted here potentially offer a perspective into the mechanisms behind Arctic multi-decadal climate variability.

Precursor Circulation Features for Persistent Extreme Precipitation in Central-Eastern China

Abstract Using a composite analysis, the typical precursor circulation configuration from the lower to the upper troposphere responsible for persistent extreme precipitation events (PEPEs) of double-blocking-high type in central-eastern China is identified. The potential of these precursors is further assessed based on the composites of normalized anomalies. The composite results reveal that at 500 hPa, about 2 weeks prior to the onset of PEPEs, a positive height anomaly progresses toward the Ural Mountains region from 30°E and another positive anomaly extends southwest from high latitudes toward the Sea of Okhotsk. Afterward, these two positive anomalies grow in magnitude in situ. The double blocking highs are finally well established with height anomalies of 2.4 and 1.8 standard deviations above normal, respectively. At 850 hPa, an anomalous anticyclone originating from the equatorial western Pacific migrates northwestward 1 week prior to the event occurrence, resulting in a greatly intensified moisture transport toward central-eastern China with a magnitude anomaly over four standard deviations above normal. In the upper troposphere, the eastward-extended South Asia high and the southward-displaced westerlies combine to provide favorable upper-level divergence for PEPEs. These composites of the anomalies and normalized anomalies may offer forecasters some useful clues in recognizing significant weather events about 1–2 weeks in advance of an event.

The East Asian winter monsoon: re-amplification in the mid-2000s

Based on several reanalysis and observational datasets, this study demonstrates that the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) recovered from its weak epoch and re-amplified in the mid-2000s. Accordingly, East Asia has experienced more cold winters and significant negative surface air temperature anomalies during the recent strong EAWM epoch spanning the period 2004–2012. The associated cooling was mainly located over inland northern East Asia with a west–east orientation. The cooling generally coincided with negative winter temperature trends in eastern Eurasia in the last two decades, possibly contributing to the observed regional cooling trend when the global mean temperature is still trending up. Enhanced wintertime blocking activity around the Ural mountain region and diminished Arctic sea ice concentration in the previous September are suggested to be the responsible internal atmospheric process and external driver for the recent re-amplification of the EAWM, respectively.

Effect of the climate shift around mid 1970s on the relationship between wintertime Ural blocking circulation and East Asian climate

AbstractBlocking variability over the Ural Mountain region in the boreal winter and its relationship with the East Asian winter climate is investigated. The climate shift around mid 1970s has been shown to exert a significant influence on the blocking pattern. In contrast with the years before 1976/1977, the Ural blocking signal after 1976/1977 is found to propagate less into the stratosphere and more eastward in the troposphere to East Asia, which therefore exerts more influence on the East Asian winter climate. This enhanced Ural blocking–East Asian climate relationship amplifies the impact of Ural blocking on East Asia and, with the background of decreasing Ural blocking, contributes to the higher frequency of warm winters in this region. Further analyses suggest that the NAM‐related stratospheric polar vortex strength and its modulation on the propagation of atmospheric stationary waves can account for this change, with the key area being located in the North Atlantic region. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society

Limnological assessment of Verkhne Viiskii Reservoir, Russian Federation.

Verkhne Viiskii Reservoir (surface area = 6.0 km2; volume = 36.0 hm3), one of two water supply reservoirs for the City of Nizhnii Tagil, is located in a forested watershed (drainage area = 272 km2) in the Ural Mountain region of the Russian Federation. This study, conducted in August 1999, provides a benchmark limnological assessment against which to gauge future change. While currently meeting local water quality requirements for drinking water sources, the reservoir exhibits moderately eutrophic characteristics, including elevated epilimnetic nutrient (total P = 0.048-0.115 mg L(-1); total N = 0.421-0.508 mg L(-1)) and chlorophyll (4-8.4 microg L(-1)) concentrations, and a high rate of hypolimnetic oxygen depletion (4.07 g m(-3) mo(-1)).

The Golden deer of Eurasia: Scythian and Sarmatian treasures from the Russian steppes: the State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, and the Archaeological Museum, Ufa

Works of art have recently been excavated in Filippovka, Russia. They were created from about the fifth to the fourth century BC by the nomadic people who lived on the steppes of the southern Ural Mountain region. These unique works of art are the focus of this book.