Stanislav A. Nikitin

Tomsk State University · Glacio-Climatological Laboratory

The Koryak Highland is one of the areas of the present-day mountain glaciation in the north-east of the Asian part of Russia. Its remoteness and inaccessibility are serious obstacles to the ground-based (field) researches, so our knowledge of the regime of glaciers in this area is still incomplete. Objective of this study was to obtain data on chan...

New data on the state of the Suntar-Khayata Mountains glaciers in 2018 are presented and changes in the area of glaciers in the second half of the 20 th and early 21 st centuries are estimated. In 2018, the glaciation of the Suntar-Khayata Mountains was represented by 251 glaciers with a total area of about 133±10 km2. Among the morphological types...

The new Inventory of the Russian glaciers has been created at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences mainly on the basis of the Sentinel 2 satellite images for 2016–2019 with the aim of assessing the current state of glacier systems and as a basis for monitoring and re-inventorying. Delineation of glacier outlines was manuall...

Long-term series of observations on the glacier of the southern slope of Elbrus manifest the change of two climatic periods in the highlands of the Caucasus. During the first one, relatively cold and snowy period of 1982–1997 with a small positive mass balance, the Garabashi Glacier accumulated a layer of 0.8 m.e. The second period (1998–2017) is c...

Mountain glaciers currently exist in 18 mountainous regions of the continental part of Russia. They occupy a total area of about 3480 km2. Almost all the glaciers in these mountainous areas have receded over the past few decades. The process of glacier retreat leads to landscape change in the glacier zone and can also lead to increased risks of haz...

This paper reports that in the period of global warming continuing over 150 years, there are the glaciers growing in size.

Contemporary conditions and dynamics of glaciers in mountain areas of Russia have been evaluated based on satellite imagery interpretations and field surveys, analysis of the data of the Glacier Inventory of the USSR, topographic maps and aerial photographs, as well as published research papers. Glacier systems in Russia have been studied unevenly...

The process of filling the bed with ice with steep lateral tributaries, which lost support, began almost immediately after the catastrophe on the Kolka Glacier in 2002. Currently, three streams of ice have closed in the rear zone of the circus, forming a single ice massif on the bed. The dimensions of the glacier vary under the influence of both ne...

A multiple parameter dating technique was used to establish a depth/age scale for a 171.3 m (145.87 m w.e.) surface to bedrock ice core (Bl2003) recovered from the cold recrystallization accumulation zone of the Western Belukha Plateau (4115 m a.s.l.) in the Siberian Altai Mountains. The ice-core record presented visible layering of annual accumula...

The paper examines changes in the area and volume of the Katun river basin glaciers, North and South Chu glaciers of the Altai Mountains since the beginning of the USSR glaciers inventarization to the present. For this purpose, we used USSR Glaciers Inventory data, space imagery – CORONA-1968, ALOS PRISM-2008, Landsat and ASTER 2000–2012. In total,...

We conducted 2 yr (2005–2007) of in situ meteorological and glaciological observations on the Gregoriev Glacier, a flat-top glacier within the Inner Tien Shan, Kyr-gyzstan. Relative carrier-phase GPS surveys reveal a vertical lowering at the summit of the glacier. Based on snow density data and an energy-mass balance model, we estimate that the ann...

We conducted 2 yr (2005-2007) of in situ meteorological and glaciological observations on the Gregoriev Glacier, a flat-top glacier within the Inner Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan. Differential GPS surveys reveal a vertical surface deletion at the summit of the glacier. Based on snow density data and an energy-mass balance model, we estimate that the annual...

In a previous study, past summer temperatures were reconstructed from melt features in the Belukha ice core, Siberian Altai. We evaluated the climatic representativeness of net accumulation and melt features by comparing two Belukha ice cores retrieved at neighboring sites by different institutions and dated by different methods. Melt features in b...

Mountain glaciers are a vital source of fresh water in arid and semi-arid regions of central Asia. To quantify glacier loss due to climate change during the last 42 years and use this information in water resources estimation, we have completed a comprehensive database of the glacier area changes in Altai-Sayan (AS), Tien Shan (TS) and Pamir (PA) m...

The Siberian Altai covers about 70% of the area of all south Siberian glaciers, which provide fresh water to the upper tributaries of the Ob and Yenisey rivers. The observed air temperature has increased by 1.2 °C over northern Eurasia during the last 120 years, affecting the degradation of the Siberian Altai glaciers. In this study, we estimated g...

The Altai mountains in Siberia define southern periphery of the Asian Arctic Basin, and the Ob River is a major Siberian river fed by fresh water from Altai glaciers. Intensification of glacier melt in the head of Ob River since the middle of 20th century may have a considerable influence on the water resources and hydrological regime of Siberian r...

Several firn/ice cores were recovered from the Siberian Altai (Belukha plateau), central Tien Shan (Inilchek glacier) and the Tibetan Plateau (Zuoqiupu glacier, Bomi) from 1998 to 2003. The comparison analyses of stable-isotope/geochemistry records obtained from these firn/ice cores identified the physical links controlling the climate-related sign...

Snow algae are cold-tolerant algae growing on snow and ice and have been reported on glaciers in many parts of the world. Blooms of snow algae can reduce the surface albedo of snow and ice and significantly affect their melting. In addition, snow algae found in ice cores can be potential indicators of the paleo-environment, making them of great int...

In the summers of 2001 and 2002, glacio-climatological research was performed at 4110-4120 m a.s.l. on the Belukha snow/firn plateau, Siberian Altai. Hundreds of samples from snow pits and a 21 m snow/firn core were collected to establish the annual/seasonal/monthly depth-accumulation scale, based on stable-isotope records, stratigraphic analyses a...

Microorganism in two shallow ice cores from the Sofiskiy Glacier (25.1m in length, taken at 3,435 m a.s.l.. in Jul, 2001) and the Belukha Glacier (20.94m in length, taken at 4,110m a.s.l. in Jul, 2001), Altai range of Russia, were examined for potential use in ice core analyses of this area. These ice cores and pit samples collected at the coring s...

To systemize and analyze the information for the period from 1835 to present on altitudinal distributions of glaciers, exposition, their numbers and surface areas in basins, volumes, genetic classification, location of lower and upper level of glaciers, average firn line position and main morphometric characteristics, DataBase on glacier dynamics i...

The Altai's glaciers provide information on internal and external hydrological cycles over the Eurasia, storing long-term records of fresh water transport from Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Central Asia closed drainage basin. The 22 m firn-ice cores and 3 m snow pits from the Belukha firn Plateau (4109 - 4115 m) were used to recover climatic...

Investigations in Siberian Altai permits to expand our scope from Tibet, Himalayas, Tien Shan and Pamir to the area located at the northeastern edge of the Central Asia Mountain System. Altai forms a natural barrier to the northern and western air masses and therefore affords an opportunity to develop modern paleo-climate records relating to the we...

Past summer temperature has been reconstructed by melt features in Belukha ice core in a previous study. We evaluated a climatic representativeness of isotope, net accumulation and melt feature by comparing two Belukha ice cores retrieved by different institutions and dated by different methods. We find a significant correlation between seasonal ch...

A depth/accumulation scale for the Altai glaciers, Siberia, established based on delta18O and deltaD firn-ice cores analysis. In sequences of annual layers in the firn-ice cores recovered in 2001 and 2002, the mean annual snow accumulation was found to be 800 mm at 4115 m of the Belukha Snow-Firn Plateau. The transfer function was developed using t...