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The landscape conditions for forming the water balance and runoff from catchment areas can change considerably under the pressure of natural and anthropogenic factors. The role of hydromorphic transformation of landscapes is important for most of the Ob basin; it results in the paludification of the area. The specific parameter n is used in calculating water balance according to Mezentsev’s method of hydro-climatic calculations to take account of landscape conditions. We suggest determining this parameter’s value by geomorphological features of the landscapes using GIS tools.

The paper presents the history and major results of research into resources, regime and quality of the surface water in the Ob basin, concentrated in such water bodies as glaciers, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. Studies have long been carried out by such government agencies as the Hydrometeorological Service (Hydromet), the Ministry of Energy and others, engineering organizations, scientific research institutes of the academy of sciences and universities. The studies included large complex tasks aimed at economic development of the basin territory. By the 1980s, an expanded network of stationary hydrological observations existed, and basic information about the factors of resources formation, regime and surface water quality, as well as long-term dynamics of hydrological characteristics had been obtained. Today, a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to the hydrological cycle and geo-run-off at the global and regional scales is related to the changes in climate and the environment in general.

Analysis of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon (DOC and DIC, respectively), pH, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl, SO4 and Si in ~ 100 large and small rivers (< 100 to ≤ 150 000 km2) of western Siberia sampled in winter, spring, summer and autumn over a more than 1500 km latitudinal gradient allowed for establishing the main environmental factors controlling the transport of dissolved river components in this environmentally important region, comprising continuous, discontinuous, sporadic and permafrost-free zones. There was significant latitudinal trend consisting in general decrease of DOC, DIC, SO4, and major cation (Ca, Mg, Na, K) concentrations northward, reflecting the interplay between groundwater feeding (detectable mostly in the permafrost-free zone, south of 60° N) and surface flux (in the permafrost-bearing zone). The trend of inorganic components was mostly pronounced in winter and less visible in spring, whereas for DOC, the trend of concentration decrease with latitude was absent in winter, and less pronounced in the spring flood than in the summer baseflow. The latitudinal trends persisted over all river watershed sizes, from < 100 to > 10 000 km2. This suggested that in addition to groundwater feeding of the river, there was a significant role of surface and shallow subsurface flow linked to plant litter degradation and peat leaching. Environmental factors are ranked by their increasing effect on DOC, DIC, δ13CDIC, and major elements in western Siberian rivers as the following: watershed area < season < latitude. Seasonal fluxes of dissolved components did not significantly depend on the river size and as such could be calculated as a~function of watershed latitude. Unexpectedly, the DOC flux remained stable around 3 t km−2 yr−1 until 61° N, decreased two-fold in the discontinuous permafrost zone (62–66° N), and increased again to 3 t km−2 yr−1 in the continuous permafrost zone (67° N). The DIC, Mg, K and Ca followed this pattern. The total dissolved cation flux (TDS_c) ranged from 1.5 to 5.5 t km−2 yr−1, similar to that in central Siberian rivers of the continuous permafrost region. While Si concentration was almost unaffected by the latitude over all seasons, the Si flux systematically increased northward, suggesting a decreasing role of secondary mineral formation in soil and of vegetation uptake. The dominating effect of latitude cannot however be interpreted solely in terms of permafrost abundance and water flow path (deep vs. surface) but has to be considered in the context of different climate, plant biomass productivity, unfrozen peat thickness and peat chemical composition. It can be anticipated that, under climate warming in western Siberia, the maximal change will occur in small (< 1000 km2 watershed) rivers DOC, DIC and ionic composition, and this change will be mostly pronounced in summer and autumn. The wintertime concentrations and spring flood fluxes and concentrations are unlikely to be appreciably affected by the change of the active layer depth and terrestrial biomass productivity. Assuming a conservative precipitation scenario and rising temperature over next few centuries, the annual fluxes of DOC and K in the discontinuous permafrost zone may see a maximum increase by a factor of 2, whereas for DIC and Mg, this increase may achieve a factor of 3. The fluxes of Ca and TDS_c may increase by a factor of 5. At the same time, Si fluxes will either remain constant or decrease two-fold in the permafrost-bearing zone relative to the permafrost-free zone of western Siberia.

Western Siberia's thermokarst (thaw) lakes extend over a territory spanning over a million km2; they are highly dynamic hydrochemical systems that receive chemical elements from the atmosphere and surrounding peat soil and vegetation, and exchange greenhouse gases with the atmosphere, delivering dissolved carbon and metals to adjacent hydrological systems. This work describes the chemical composition of ~ 130 thermokarst lakes of the size range from a few m2 to several km2, located in the discontinuous permafrost zone. Lakes were sampled during spring floods, just after the ice break (early June), the end of summer (August), the beginning of ice formation (October) and during the full freezing season in winter (February). Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the major and trace elements do not appreciably change their concentration with the lake size increase above 1000 m2 during all seasons. On the annual scale, the majority of dissolved elements including organic carbon increase their concentration from 30 to 500%, with a statistically significant (p < 0.05) trend from spring to winter. The maximal increase in trace element (TE) concentration occurred between spring and summer and autumn and winter. The ice formation in October included several stages: first, surface layer freezing followed by crack (fissure) formation with unfrozen water from the deeper layers spreading over the ice surface. This water was subsequently frozen and formed layered ice rich in organic matter. As a result, the DOC and metal concentrations were the highest at the beginning of the ice column and decreased from the surface to the depth. A number of elements demonstrated the accumulation, by more than a factor of 2, in the surface (0–20 cm) of the ice column relative to the rest of the ice core: Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Ba and Pb. The main consequences of discovered freeze-driven solute concentrations in thermokarst lake waters are enhanced colloidal coagulation and the removal of dissolved organic matter and associated insoluble metals from the water column to the sediments. The measured distribution coefficient of TE between amorphous organo-ferric coagulates and lake water (< 0.45 μm) were similar to those reported earlier for Fe-rich colloids and low molecular weight (< 1 kDa) fractions of thermokarst lake waters, suggesting massive co-precipitation of TE with amorphous Fe oxy(hydr)oxide stabilized by organic matter. Although the concentration of most elements is lowest in spring, this period of maximal water coverage of land creates a significant reservoir of DOC and soluble metals in the water column that can be easily mobilized to the hydrological network. The highest DOC concentration observed in the smallest (< 100 m2) water bodies in spring suggests their strongly heterotrophic status and, therefore, elevated CO2 flux from the lake surface to the atmosphere.

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We have identified three main types of wetland water regime characterized by: (1) spring inundation and following deep drainage with/without secondary peak in autumn; (2) spring inundation and low summer variation; (3) spring inundation with medium summer drainage and second autumnal peak. Our estimates show that the floodplain inundation contributes less than 8% to the total wet zones extent. Analysis of the timing of melt and freeze onset and other specific phases of hydrological regime has been done. It was found that the spring inundation lasts for almost 2 months with a latitudinal gradient of melt onset of 8 days/2. No considerable latitudinal gradient has been found for dates of full freeze onset. Our results show that seasonal amplitude of water level variation for northern part of Western Siberia from altimetry is 0.7-1.5 m for lakes and 0.2-0.5 m for bogs. This represents seasonal variation of wetland water storage of 480 mm for non-permafrost and 130 mm for permafrost-affected zones. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.