Thawing of permafrost may disturb historic cattle burial grounds in East Siberia

Figures & data

Fig. 1.  Geographic distribution of burial grounds of cattle that died (+) from anthrax in Yakutia.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of annual and July average temperatures in 1961–2010 and linear trends in annual average for selected administrative districts of Yakutia with the greatest numbers of anthrax cattle burial grounds

	Annual average					July average
Administrative district (number of cattle burial grounds)	Mean (°C)	Min (°C)	Max (°C)	Trend (°C/year)	Significance level	Mean (°C)	Min (°C)	Max (°C)
West Yakutia (112), including
Viluisky (13) + Verhneviluisky (10)	−8.6	−11.0	−6.4	0.04**	<0.001	18.2	15.1	22.7
Bulunsky (1)	−13.0	−17.8	−10.5	0.02	0.14	7.5	4.4	12.5
Nurbinsky (17)	−8.3	−10.9	−5.4	0.04*	0.02	17.3	14.4	21.5
Suntarsky (6)	−7.1	−10.2	−5.0	0.04*	0.01	18	14.9	21.7
Zhigansky (6)	−11.2	−13.7	−9.0	0.02	0.09	16.1	12.3	21
Mirninsky (29)	−7.1	−11.6	−4.2	0.02	0.16	17	13.8	20.5
Olekminsky (20)	−6.0	−8.5	−4.1	0.02	0.13	18.1	14.9	21.8
Oleneksky (10)	−11.6	−14.3	−8.4	0.02	0.11	14.9	11	19.5
Central Yakutia (112) including
Ust-Maisky (2)	−8.7	−11.5	−5.1	0.04**	0.001	18.3	15.3	21.2
Khangalassky (9)	−7.6	−10.0	−4.7	0.04**	0.001	17.7	14.4	21.4
Yakutsk (7) + Namsky (13) + Ust-Aldansky (20) + Gorny (17)	−9.3	−12.3	−7.1	0.06**	< 0.001	18.9	15.9	22.8
Amginsky (15)	−10.0	−13.0	−6.9	0.04*	0.01	18.2	15.3	21.6
Churapchinsky (6)	−10.2	−13.0	−7.1	0.04*	0.01	18.5	15.4	22.2
Kobaisky (13)	−10.9	−13.9	−9.3	0.02	0.24	17.3	14.3	21.7
Tomponsky (3)	−12.9	−18.0	−7.9	0.01	0.73	16	6	19.8
East Yakutia (43) including
Verkhoyansky (4)	−14.5	−17.4	−9.7	0.01	0.39	15.9	11.8	21.5
Oimyakonsky (10)	−15.5	−19.0	−9.7	−0.002	0.92	14.8	11.5	23.1

* p<0.05; **p<0.01.

Fig. 2.  The ranges of annual average temperatures observed in different parts of Yakutia.

Fig. 3.  Annual average temperature trend in Yakutsk city.