Increasing Discharge Options

[Brooke]

Has the MacKenzie and Yukon Rivers' discharge increased 50-100 years?

[Max_Holmes]

Hi Brooke,

That's a great question. Unfortunately, I can't answer it. The reason I can't answer it is because the USGS (United States Geological Survey) did not start measuring Yukon River discharge near the ocean until the mid 1970's, and the Canadians didn't begin to measure the Mackenzie River discharge until about the same time. In contrast, the Soviet Union (now Russia) started measuring the discharge of their arctic rivers in the 1930's. And in order to know if discharge is changing over time, we need long records for analysis.

Amazingly, the United States government will soon stop measuring discharge of the Yukon River (at Pilot Station, the station closest to the ocean), because they don't have enough money (remember, the US is probably the richest country on Earth). But Russia, where the economy is MUCH worse, continues to measure discharge for all of their big arctic rivers. I congratulate the Russian Federation for their priorities in this case and question the current priorities of the U.S. government.

Thanks for the excellent question. I'm sorry that the data do not exist to answer it.

Max