Lake Baikal gets shallower for record-long time, scientists warn

IRKUTSK, April 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Scientists fear the global climate
change may be the reason for falling water intake by Lake Baikal which has
been getting shallower for the past 15 years which is a record-long period
when the biggest fresh water lake in the world received insufficient water
volumes.
Tamara Berezhnykh from the energy security laboratory of the Melentyev
Research Institute at the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences told
Tass on Friday five low-inflow periods had been registered in a hundred
years and they lasted not more than 5-8 years.
"The current period is unprecedented," she said adding "it can be
connected with the global climate change."
Siberian scientists plan to gather all regional and planetary data on
air temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, water flows and
precipitation to create a model of water intake for the unique lake in
Siberia.
Precipitation in the area of Lake Baikal has always depended on
monsoon circulation or seasonal change in wind blowing from Asia and the
Pacific Ocean. Berezhnykh said it had considerably diminished of late.
The regional climate is also formed by the Siberian anticyclone with
low winter temperatures and a high atmospheric pressure. In the past 35
years its intensity decreased while scientists registered frequent
anomalies of rising temperature and falling atmospheric pressure.
"In hot months the so-called Asian (low pressure) depression shall
dominate on the territory, but it on the contrary reports a positive
anomaly," Berezhnykh said.
The Angara River flows out of Lake Baikal and has a cascade of three
hydropower plants which have to reduce capacity in low-water years.