Northern Research Basins Water Balance (Proceedings of a workshop held at Victoria, Canada, March 2004). IAHS Publ. 290, 2004, 28–40

Abstract Analysis of water balance components of small mountainous watersheds in the Kolyma Water Balance Station were performed with the aim of studying features of the yearly water cycle and estimating the main reasons for balance discrepancies typically found for the permafrost zone. It was found that river runoff was a predominant discharging component of the water balance, comprising on average 73% of total precipitation, while evaporation was 34% on average. The two main reasons for the water balance discrepancies were underestimation of evapotranspiration and runoff feeding from ice in the strata of talus deposits. These two processes partly compensated each other. The water balance aspects of shading and direct illumination of slopes were also considered.

Key words East Siberia; evapotranspiration; permafrost; runoff; water balance; water year