Explore the vast range of titles available.

This paper addresses the nexus of climate change and variability, soil moisture and surface runoff over the Lake Baikal catchment. Water level and distribution of dissolved and suspended matter over Lake Baikal are strongly affected by river inflow during rain-driven floods. In this study, we evaluate river flow changes at 44 streamflow gauges as well as related precipitation, evaporation, potential evaporation and soil moisture obtained from the ERA5-Land dataset. Based on Sen’s slope trend estimator, Mann–Kendall non-parametric test, and using dominance analysis, we estimated the influence of meteorological parameters on river flow during 1979–2019. We found a significant correlation between the precipitation elasticity of river flow and catchment characteristics. Half of the gauges in the eastern part of the Selenga River basin showed a significant decreasing trend of average and maximum river flow (up to −2.9%/year). No changes in the central volume date of flood flow have been found. The reduction in rainfall amount explains more than 60% of runoff decrease. A decrease in evaporation is observed in areas where precipitation decrease is higher than 0.8%/year. Catchments, where the precipitation trends are not as substantial, are associated with increasing evaporation as a result of the increasing potential evaporation. Negative precipitation trends are accompanied by negative trends of soil moisture. Finally, the study reveals the sensitivity of catchments with steep slopes located in humid areas to precipitation change.

Drought is one of the most dangerous natural hazards that has a huge impact on the economy and population in the world and in Russia as well. A large number of studies speak of an increase in the number of droughts and low flow conditions, including Russia. In this work, an analysis was made of the conditions for droughts in the East European Plain over the past 38 years based on the data from the ERA-5 reanalysis. The atmospheric precipitation, air temperature over the seasons and the Palmer index (as a general indicator) for the study area were analyzed. Much attention was paid to the characteristics of the winter period, since the supposedly mild winters create favorable conditions for the formation of droughts in the summer period. It was found that the main factors affecting the drought formation of 2007-2018 was the lack of summer rainfall, and the remaining factors played a “preparatory” role in the process of the formation of large-scale drought.

Risk management has reduced vulnerability to floods and droughts globally 1 , 2 , yet their impacts are still increasing 3 . An improved understanding of the causes of changing impacts is therefore needed, but has been hampered by a lack of empirical data 4 , 5 . On the basis of a global dataset of 45 pairs of events that occurred within the same area, we show that risk management generally reduces the impacts of floods and droughts but faces difficulties in reducing the impacts of unprecedented events of a magnitude not previously experienced. If the second event was much more hazardous than the first, its impact was almost always higher. This is because management was not designed to deal with such extreme events: for example, they exceeded the design levels of levees and reservoirs. In two success stories, the impact of the second, more hazardous, event was lower, as a result of improved risk management governance and high investment in integrated management. The observed difficulty of managing unprecedented events is alarming, given that more extreme hydrological events are projected owing to climate change 3 . Unprecedented floods and droughts bring new challenges for risk reduction, as is clear from this analysis of the drivers of changing impacts in many cases worldwide, with implications for efficient governance and investment in integrated management.

Computer simulation of the concentration profiles evolution in SiC/Si heterostructures during growth and subsequent ion sputtering is presented. Simulation is based on a complex self-consistent approach combining kinetic and ballistic methods. Within the framework of the proposed method concentration depth profiles in SiC/Si heterostructure with pre-deposited Ge impurity are calculated and compared with experimental sputtering profiles obtained by secondary ion mass spectrometry.

For construction of portable aluminium-air batteries (AABs) for field applications the data on performance of such batteries at low temperatures are necessary. Such experimental data are presented in this article. Lower temperature limit for effective operation of portable AABs is estimated. Possibility of AABs self-heating to the desired temperature is also considered.