Lena River Delta

The Lena River delta is the largest Arctic delta with an area of about 32,000 km2. It consists of more than 800 branches with a total length of 6,500 km. The Lena delta is underlined by continuous permafrost 500–600 m thick and located in remote and unpopulated area in the Arctic continental climate with the mean annual air temperature by −12.5 °C. Increase in warming rate from an average air temperature of 4.1 °C for the period 1950–99 to 6.1 °C during 2000–21 over the Lena Delta both with streamflow and sediment yield entering the Lena Delta increase since 1988 by 56.3 km3 and 6.1 × 106 t, respectively, are the key drivers of channel banks active degradation. Due to this fact, Lena Delta can be recognized as the global hot spot in terms of the hydrological consequences of climate change which together with streamflow alters sediment regimes, stream hydromorphology and carbon transport.