The Long-Term Variations and Changes of Heat Flow
Transferred by the Lena River
Baozhong Liu1, Daqing Yang2, Baisheng Ye3 and Sveta Berezovskaya4
The north flowing rivers may affect the Arctic Ocean through three aspects: the
primary freshwater source, the main nutrition source, and one of main heat sources.
Basing on long-term (1950-1992) monthly discharge data and the derived monthly
stream temperature data from the every-10-day-measureed records, long-term mean heatflow (heat amount), trend, and inter-annual variation (standard deviation) have been
calculated for several major gauging stations along the Lena River during open water
season (June-September), and the statistical significances of the trends have also been
determined by
standard t-test.
Taking June as an instance for the presentation of results, it shows that: 1) the June heatflow near the Aldan outlet had increased by 14% due to the increase in stream
temperature (17%) even though the decrease in discharge (3%) during 1950-92; 2) the
June heat-flow near the Upper Lena outlet had increased by 24% due to the combined
increase in both discharge (7%) and stream temperature (19%); 3) the magnitude and
trend of the June heat-flow near the Vilui outlet are greatly influenced by the changes in
both discharge and stream temperature due to the reservoir regulation (since 1968), and at
the time scale of the whole period (1950-92) the June heat-flow had decreased by 30%
due to the strong decrease in discharge (54%) even though the increase in stream
temperature (24%); 4) and the June heat-flow near the outlet of Lena River had increased
by 23% during 1950-92 due to the strong increase in stream temperature (32%) even
though the decrease in discharge (5%). For southern subbasins, the maximum heat-flow
appears in June or July, and they are also very close but much bigger than August and
September; whereas, near the Lena outlet the July heat-flow is much bigger than other
months.
1
Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Duckering Building P.O.
Box 755860 Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5860, Phone: 907-474-2721; Fax: 907-474-7979; ftbl@uaf.edu
2
Water and Environmental Research Center, UAF; ffdy@uaf.edu
3
Cold and Arid Region Environmental and Engineering Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Lanzhou, P.R.China; yebs@ns.lzb.ac.cn
4
Water and Environmental Research Center, UAF; ffslb2@uaf.edu