The impact of contemporary changes in climate and land use/cover on tendencies in water flow, suspended sediment yield and erosion intensity in the northeastern part of the Don River basin, SW European Russia.

The basin of the Don River (the fifth longest river in Europe), located mainly in the forest-steppe and steppe landscape zones, is one of the most populated and agriculturally developed regions of the East European (Russian) Plain. Sheet, rill and gully erosion occurring chiefly in snowmelt period (March-April) and also in moderate-to-heavy-rainfalls season (chiefly May-to-September) is the main factor of present-day soil degradation within cultivated lands of this basin. Using monitoring hydrological data, it is shown, by the examples of the Khopyor River and the Medveditsa River flowing in the northeastern part of the Don River basin (SW European Russia), that suspended sediment yield of the rivers, as an objective and sufficiently accurate indicator of total erosion intensity in river basins, was reduced by 3.

Contribution of climate and land cover changes to reduction in soil erosion rates within small cultivated catchments in the eastern part of the Russian Plain during the last 60 years.

The eastern part of the Russian Plain is an important agricultural region of European Russia with high proportion of cultivated lands in the steppe, forest-steppe and forest (southern part) landscape zones. Soil erosion is the main process of land degradation and surface water contamination there. Climate and land cover changes have been observed in this region during the last 30 years.