Contemporary aeolian morphogenesis in semiarid landscapes of the intermountain depressions of Southern Siberia

This article studies the modern long-term variability in the intensity of aeolian morphogenesis in semiarid regions of Southern Siberia. The results of long-term station-based monitoring of aeolian processes are presented. The coherence of intensity fluctuation of atmospheric humidity and fluctuation of inland lakes is traced. Pulsating character of aeolian processes due to climate cycles of atmospheric moisture is presented. The increasing role of deflation in the modern morphogenesis is revealed. Much attention is paid to catastrophic aeolian processes. The interaction of aeolian and fluvial processes, forming a special mechanism of denudation and substance moving, and also being characteristic for the subarid foothill of the northern periphery of the South-Siberian mountain belt, is considered. Spatial ordering of aeolian processes within a regional subsystem of a unified aeolian substance cycle in Central Asia is presented. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.