Role of sublimation and evapotranspiration in the continental-scale Lena River basin, Eastern Siberia

The Lena River basin in Siberia produces one of the largest river inflows into the Arctic Ocean. One of the most important sources of runoff to the river is spring snowmelt, and therefore, snow ablation processes have great importance for this basin. Vegetation and accumulated snowfall control the spatial distribution of sublimation, which is found to have a considerable effect on the snow ablation. We found that the ratio of sublimation to snowfall in forests is around 26% and that interannual variation of sublimation modulates the spring river runoff. We also revealed a negative trend in TWS in the downstream portion of the Lena River basin, which may be explained by increasing evapotranspiration associated with warming summer air temperatures.