TOMSK, Jun 10 – RIA Tomsk. Scientists from Tomsk State University (TSU) for the first time discovered the phenomenon of bogging of
lakes in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation; in their opinion, climate
warming could have led to this process, the press service of the university
reported on Monday.
It is clarified that the staff of the "BioGeoClim" laboratory of
TSU study the features of ecosystems of forest and wetland complexes of Western
Siberia. In particular, within the framework of a grant from the Russian
Science Foundation they explore khasyreys - former lakes that can serve as the
basis for green "oases" in the Arctic.
"We faced a natural phenomenon in the form of rapid bogging of lakes.
This phenomenon is usually characteristic of areas with a fairly warm climate,
for example, it is often found in Belarus and in the taiga zone of the Russian
Plain. One of the possible reasons for changing the ecosystem of the Arctic
lakes may be global warming, causing emptying their hollows", – is said in
the statement.
According to the press service, during the expedition to the Purovsky
district of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, scientists discovered several
objects that, when analyzing satellite images, were taken for khasyreys, but it
turned out that these are lakes, on the surface of which a sudd (morass) was
formed – a green "pillow" from peat, overgrown with mosses and sedge.
"We have never encountered such phenomena in the Arctic zone. There are no
mention of modern appearence of sudds in harsh continental conditions in
literary and scientific sources", – the senior research associate of the
"BioGeoClim" laboratory Sergey Loyko is quoted.
According to the TSU scientist, sudds are often found in the marshy plains
of a warm climate on the surface of nutrient-rich water bodies. Over time, the
vegetable "pillows" are compacted and take the form of a sustainable
island. As the thickness increases, its lower layers die off and fall to the
bottom, turning into peat.