Taiga zone

Siberia is a predominantly forest country.

The boundless sea of ​​the Siberian taiga stretches from the foot of the Ural Mountains to the eastern border of Siberia and from the borders of the forest-tundra to Mongolia, over an area of ​​over 7 million square meters. km. In no other country on the globe do forests occupy such a huge area.

It takes many months to cross the taiga zone along country roads and hunting trails, and all this time there will be a green wall of trees around, although often interrupted by peat bogs or narrow strips of meadows bordering river valleys... A passenger plane flies over the territory of Siberia for many hours from the Urals to the Far East. Under its wing there are areas with the most varied terrain and climate, but forests most often lie below. And even from here, from a bird's eye view, it seems that there is no end to them. Taiga covers the middle part of the plain of Western Siberia with a green veil, envelops the wide watersheds of the Central Siberian Plateau, runs up the steep slopes of mountain ranges and through narrow gorges approaches the peaks covered with eternal snow.

The forests of Siberia are very unique and very different from the forests of the European part of the Soviet Union. Coniferous trees reign supreme almost everywhere. They do not grow widely throughout the entire space from the Urals to the mountain ranges stretching along the eastern border of Siberia. deciduous trees: oak, maple, ash; The deciduous trees found here are mainly birch, aspen and alder.

A very wide distribution of taiga landscapes with a predominance coniferous trees explained as features modern climate forest zone of Siberia, and the uniqueness of the complex history of the formation of its landscapes during the Quaternary period.

The study of plant remains found among Tertiary sediments indicates that luxurious plants were widespread in Siberia at that time. broadleaf forests, mainly from oak, beech, poplar, walnut. The cooling of the climate at the end of the Tertiary period led to the disappearance of these forests, first in the mountains of Central and Southern Siberia, and then in the flat areas.

Instead of broad-leaved trees in the mountainous regions of Siberia, taiga forests of coniferous trees appear: spruce, fir and cedar (A.I. Tolmachev. On the question of the origin of the taiga as a zonal plant landscape, Journal "Soviet Botany", 1943, No. 4). The dark coniferous taiga quite quickly descended from the mountains to the neighboring plains, and by the beginning of the Quaternary time it already occupied almost the entire territory of Siberia.

During the Quaternary glaciation, taiga forests in Western Siberia were pushed south by ice, and in mountainous areas their upper boundary dropped significantly along the slopes. Probably at the same time, larch forests appeared in Eastern Siberia under conditions of a drier climate and the development of permafrost.

At the end of glaciation, taiga vegetation again moved north. It occupied the spaces of the West Siberian Lowland freed from glaciers; The upper limit of the distribution of taiga vegetation in the mountains of Eastern Siberia also moved upward. During the relatively warm and dry, so-called xerothermic period, the taiga spread to the north even much further than at present, and was located in the southern regions of the current tundra zone. At the same time, in all likelihood, steppe vegetation penetrated into some areas of the taiga zone, which in some places has remained here to this day.

A new climate cooling, which occurred already in the historical era, again caused a significant retreat of the taiga to the south. This process continues today; it finds its expression, in particular, in the observed advance of forest vegetation into the territory of the forest-steppe zone.

The main common features of the modern climate of the forest zone of Siberia are relatively warm, sometimes even hot summers, very cold winters lasting from five to seven months, and moderate, but generally greater than in other zones, amounts of precipitation. In various regions of the Siberian taiga, precipitation falls from 350 to 500–600 mm per year; only in the east, in the taiga regions of Yakutia, their number decreases and in some places is less than 200 mm. Precipitation falls here mainly in the form of rain, which occurs most often in the second half of summer. In some areas of the taiga there are only two summer months, July and August, account for up to 60–70% of the annual precipitation.

During the cold season, clear and dry weather usually prevails in the Siberian taiga; There is relatively little precipitation, especially in the east. Despite the long winter and very low air temperatures, only in the Western Siberian taiga does the snow cover reach significant thickness. To the east of the Yenisei there is less snow in winter, and permafrost is found almost everywhere here.

These climate features of the taiga zone of Siberia greatly affect both the processes of soil cover formation and the nature of taiga vegetation.

Podzolic soils are the most widespread in the taiga. They form under conditions of relatively high temperatures in the warm season and sufficient moisture. As a rule, the upper horizons of podzolic soils are always somewhat moist, which is facilitated by their shading by a dense forest canopy. With the moisture of rain, soluble substances formed as a result of the decomposition of plant residues are carried out from the upper soil horizons. Leaching of the top layer of soil occurs.

Podzolic soil therefore usually consists of three horizons, sharply different in color. The topmost layer is slightly colored with humus and has a dark gray color; the middle one, from which the most vigorous leaching occurs, is discolored and contains a significant amount of sand particles. In appearance, it somewhat resembles ash, which is why these soils got their name. Finally, the lower horizon is enriched with clay particles, partially brought from above; it is the densest of all horizons and is called the inwash horizon.

Podzolic soils of the taiga are less fertile than, for example, steppe chernozems, and their cultivation in years with unfavorable climatic conditions (too dry or too wet spring) is somewhat difficult, but they are quite suitable for agricultural development and are widely used in Siberia for arable land. Moreover, in a number of taiga regions of Siberia, when carrying out certain agrotechnical measures and applying fertilizers on podzolic soils, grain yields are no less than, for example, in the steppes of Northern Kazakhstan. The most valuable agriculturally are podzolic soils on sand and sandy loam.

Swamp and peat-bog soils are also widespread in the taiga zone. Especially large areas They occupy the northern part of Western Siberia, the Narym region and Vasyugan. In many places, on the floodplains of taiga rivers, alluvial-meadow soils are often formed, on which rich meadow vegetation is developed.

Despite the comparative uniformity of vegetation in individual, sometimes even large areas of the Siberian taiga, its vegetation cover as a whole is still quite diverse. Even the most characteristic tracts of coniferous forests in the zone in its western and eastern parts differ greatly.

One should not, however, think that the entire taiga zone is entirely covered with continuous forests. There are many treeless swamps and open spaces with meadow vegetation. According to the calculations of Prof. K. N. Mirotvortsev (K. N. Mirotvortsev. Essays on the physical geography of the East Siberian Territory, Irkutsk, 1933), forests occupy no more than 70% of the entire territory of the taiga zone of Siberia.

The number of tree species that form the forests of the Siberian taiga is relatively small. Coniferous trees predominate among them: larch, spruce, fir, Siberian cedar and pine. As an admixture to them, deciduous trees: birch and aspen settle in burnt areas and clearings. Only in the south of the West Siberian taiga hardwoods form a narrow strip of predominantly birch forests, called here “belniks”.

The most typical coniferous tree of Siberia is larch. It is found almost everywhere in the Siberian taiga, sometimes forming pure, sometimes parklike “leaves”, sometimes mixed in greater or lesser quantities with other coniferous species. Larch is one of the most beautiful and powerful trees of the Siberian taiga. Its tall straight trunk reaches 30–40 m in height, and numerous branches extending from it almost at right angles form an openwork ovoid-conical crown with a somewhat blunt apex. The needles of Siberian larch are soft and bright green.

There are two common types of larch in Siberia: Siberian larch in the west and Daurian larch in the east. Both of them, unlike other conifers, are summer-green trees and shed their needles in the winter. In their appearance, Siberian and Daurian larches are very similar to each other. However, the Dahurian larch usually has a wider crown, often with several separate tips, and the needles are not bright green, but light green or bluish. In addition, its bark has a slightly reddish tint (Siberian larch has a gray-brownish bark), and its cones are smaller (15–25 mm) and oval, and not ovoid, like those of Siberian larch.

The root system of larch, especially Dahurian larch, consists of numerous lateral roots, reaching 4–5 m in length, but not going deep into the soil, but spreading almost horizontally in its most superficial horizons. Very often, the roots of even an adult Dahurian larch do not penetrate deeper than 10–30 cm into the ground; Thus, this tree seems to be specially adapted to exist in conditions of permafrost located close to the surface. However, this same feature of larch often makes it a victim strong winds. This is why in the taiga of Eastern Siberia there are so often large areas of windbreaks consisting of thick larch trunks felled by the wind.

Larch is very undemanding to climatic conditions. It is found in the very north of the taiga zone, penetrating north of all other Siberian trees, and at the upper limit of forest vegetation in the mountains, and in the extreme south it reaches the Mongolian semi-deserts. Thus, larch tolerates both cold and summer heat well. It is also undemanding to soil moisture, so it can grow in areas with very different amounts of precipitation.

However, both Siberian and Daurian larches are very sensitive to light. Both of them are the most light-loving of all our conifers. The sparse larch crown lets in a lot of light, and therefore the soil under it is usually slightly shaded. Trees in the larch taiga stand at a considerable distance from one another, and in dry areas the larch forest sometimes resembles a park.

Siberian larch forests provide valuable, high-quality wood. It is characterized by great strength and elasticity, resists rotting well and serves as an excellent material for construction in damp places. Very often, larch is used for underwater structures, as well as for shipbuilding. Its negative quality is its significant weight, which leads to large losses of wood during rafting, since some of the rafted logs sink.

Other coniferous trees of the taiga zone of Siberia: spruce, fir and cedar, as opposed to larch - shade-tolerant species and more demanding conditions environment. In addition, these trees do not shed their dark, shiny needles in the winter. Unlike larch, they form so-called dark coniferous forests: dense and gloomy taiga, very often swampy and difficult to navigate.

The most common species in the taiga zone of Siberia is Siberian spruce. It reaches a height of 30 m in places and has a characteristic narrow but dense cone-shaped crown. Spruce tolerates the low temperatures of the harsh Siberian winter well, but at a young age sometimes suffers from frosts. It prefers places with moderately moist soil and dies from extreme dryness, so in the north of Eastern Siberia - in Yakutia and the mountains of the Northeast - Siberian spruce cannot exist. It does not grow in moss swamps either.

Spruce wood is soft and light; it is widely used in construction and in the pulp and paper industry.

In appearance and in relation to environmental conditions, it is very similar to spruce and another tree of dark coniferous forests - Siberian fir. In Western Siberia, Altai and the Sayan Mountains, it is almost always found together with spruce, differing from it in its bluish-gray smooth bark and thinner trunk. Thanks to the narrow conical shape of the crown and roots deep into the soil, Siberian fir resists strong storms well and is a “non-windfall” species.

Fir grows well in the harsh climate of Siberia, but is very demanding on soil conditions. “None of the coniferous trees,” writes A. Middendorf, “requires such rich and moist alluvial soil as Siberian fir. Everywhere she prefers for herself the shores and islands of such waters that quietly curl around the soil they have washed, and is not afraid of the fact that in the spring everything is under water for whole weeks” (A. Middendorf. Journey to the north and east of Siberia, part I , department IV, St. Petersburg, 1867, p. 513).

Fir wood is soft and fragile. It is used for the production of cellulose, but is not highly regarded as a building material in Siberia. From young fir branches the so-called fir oil, used to produce camphor.

Siberian cedar, or more correctly, cedar pine, is the most powerful tree of the dark coniferous taiga. Under favorable conditions, cedar can live up to 500 years in Siberia; its height reaches 35 m, and the thickness of the trunk is up to 2 m. The crown of the cedar is very similar in shape to the crown of an ordinary pine.

This tree can exist in very different conditions, however, it usually prefers places with moist air and rich loamy soils. Cedar is often found in swamps. However, here it is always low-growing and, unlike the usual one, is called “ryam cedar”.

Thanks to the good adaptability of the root system to rocky soils, cedar thrives in the mountains of Southern Siberia. In the Altai and Sayan Mountains there are forests consisting entirely of cedar; in the flat taiga, along with cedar, spruce, larch, pine and fir are usually found.

Cedar cones contain small nuts, which serve as an important commercial item for Siberians. In the fall, when pine nuts ripen, many residents of taiga villages and cities go to the taiga to “cone”, that is, to prepare nuts for the winter. Mature cones are knocked down either with a long pole, while climbing a tree, or with the help of a special wooden mallet, which is hit with force on the trunk.

The pine nut harvest averages 100–200 kg per hectare. However, not every year the harvesting of nuts is successful. Sometimes, during the ripening period of nuts, numerous flocks of small but voracious birds - nutcrackers - appear in cedar forests, completely destroying the entire nut crop in a few days, literally before the eyes of a belated industrialist.

Cedar forests provide the national economy with valuable construction and ornamental wood; it also serves as the main raw material for the manufacture of pencil boards. Highly valuable cedar oil is extracted from pine nuts.

Common pine is also very widespread in the Siberian taiga. It belongs to the light-loving tree species and is well adapted to existence in the taiga zone of Siberia. Most often, pine forests grow on sandy or sandy loam soils of wide terraces of river valleys. But in many areas of Western Siberia, pine can be found even in sphagnum bogs. However, here it becomes stunted and differs sharply from pine in dry habitats both in its shape and in the low quality of the wood. This type of pine is called “myandova” or “ryamova”.

Pine is the most valuable of the coniferous trees of the Siberian taiga. The so-called condom pine, growing on the pine forest sands of river terraces, is especially valued. Its yellow-red wood is highly durable, resinous and thin-layered. Pine is widely used in various sectors of the national economy. In addition to construction and ornamental wood, it also produces tar, rosin, resin, turpentine oil, soot and wood alcohol.

Various types of taiga vegetation are especially fully expressed in the middle part of the West Siberian Lowland. The taiga here covers a huge space almost from the Arctic Circle in the north to the line on which the cities of Tyumen and Tomsk are located. In this territory, despite the comparative monotony of the relief, one can find light “leaf trees”, and dense dark coniferous taiga, and extensive pine forests, and the largest swamps on the globe.

The taiga zone of Western Siberia, according to the nature of its vegetation, is usually divided into three subzones: northern, middle and southern (V.B. Sochava, T.I. Isachenko and A.N. Lukicheva. Common features geographical distribution of forest vegetation of the West Siberian Lowland, Izv. VGO, vol. 85, issue. 2, 1953).

The northernmost strip of taiga in Western Siberia, bordering the forest-tundra, is formed by sparse forests, consisting mainly of Siberian larch, spruce and cedar. The forests of the northern taiga subzone are characterized by significant swampiness and low soil temperatures even in summer. In many places, especially in watershed sphagnum peat bogs, permafrost is found here.

In the sparse forests of the north, both cedar and spruce, which prefer places with clay or loamy soils, and larch, which occupies sandy spaces, usually have a depressed appearance: they rarely reach a height of 15–18 m, the trunk of most trees is curved, and the top is from dried, already dead branches. In the dark coniferous and larch forests of the northern taiga, birch is often found as an admixture, and in areas with sandy soils there are small pine forests.

Under the continuous canopy of trees in the northern sparse taiga, a thick carpet of green mosses and lichens spreads everywhere, above which bushes of low-growing dwarf birch and various berry bushes rise.

In the middle subzone of the taiga, extending south to approximately 59° N. sh., dark coniferous forests are becoming denser, and the most characteristic trees they contain Siberian cedar and pine. The latter can be found here on sandy watershed ridges, on terraces of river valleys, and even in vast areas of impassable swamps.

Especially good in the middle subzone of the taiga are pine forests, widespread on the sandy plains of the Ural part of the lowland in the basins of the Sosva, Lozva and Tavda rivers. “Large spaces occupied by pine trees seem to be lined with tall, slender, yellowish-red columns, from the tops of which branches extend at the same height, supporting a thick dark green arch. A mysterious twilight and silence reigns in the forest, broken only in the treetops by a monotonous, dull hum. Occasionally, an elk or a squirrel will drop in, a woodpecker will fly in, breaking the silence of the forest for a few minutes, and then silence will fall again. For animals, such forests are not tempting - they are difficult to hide in. The grass cover in such forests is also poor” (“Russia”, vol. 16, Western Siberia, St. Petersburg, 1907, pp. 106–107).

An equally characteristic feature of the middle taiga strip is its very large swampiness. In some areas of the central part of the West Siberian Lowland, swamps occupy almost half of its area.

Such a wide distribution of swamps in Western Siberia is associated, on the one hand, with the flat nature of its topography and the wide distribution of water-resistant clay rocks, and on the other, with the significant amount of precipitation that falls here (up to 450–500 mm per year) and low evaporation in summer.

Swamps in the taiga are found in river valleys and watersheds. Most forest areas are swamped to one degree or another, but the so-called sogrs are especially swamped - forests consisting of spruce and fir with a thick and thick moss cover on the soil surface.

A significant part of the taiga swamps of Western Siberia was formed as a result of their gradual conquest of previously dry places. This process begins with the settlement of various mosses, and especially sphagnum, under the forest canopy. In conditions of difficult water drainage from forest areas located on difficult-to-permeate, most often clayey soils, cushions of sphagnum moss quickly grow and cover the soil with a continuous soft moss carpet. For this reason, the living conditions of ordinary taiga trees sharply deteriorate and they gradually die off, while over time, a more or less thick layer of sphagnum peat forms in the swamp. Thus, an area once occupied by forest turns into a peat bog.

There are also many swamps in the taiga, formed due to the overgrowth of water bodies. The encroachment of vegetation on the water surface of the lake, and in some places on a slow-flowing taiga river, begins with the appearance of green algae, pondweed, water lilies, and horsetail in the reservoir. Following them, reeds, reeds, water buttercups, marsh sedge, and arrowhead settle in the shallow coastal part of the lake. A layer of sedge or reed peat is formed from dying plants at the bottom, which gradually fills the basin and turns it into a grassy, ​​most often sedge, bog.

Vegetation cover in taiga swamps can be very different. The most common are moss bogs, covered either with a reddish carpet of sphagnum mosses or greenish-brown hypnotic mosses. Often, especially in river valleys and on the site of recently overgrown lakes, “lawns” of sedge, reed or horsetail grass swamps become brightly green.

In the moss swamps of Western Siberia there are usually thickets of low-growing marsh shrubs: dwarf birch and low-growing willow; fragrant wild rosemary is often found. At the end of summer and autumn, you can see orange-yellow cloudberries, blue blueberries and bright red cranberries, which ripen only at the time of the first snowfalls.

In the middle taiga subzone of the Western Siberian taiga, sphagnum bogs with low-growing woody vegetation, the so-called “ryams,” are widespread. The tree species most often growing on them are peculiar “ryam” pine and cedar; Often birch also settles on the “ryams”. All these trees in the swamps have a depressed appearance: their trunk is usually thin, twisted and rarely rises above 4–6 m, the trees stand at a great distance from one another; Only in rare cases do they live to be 50–60 years old.

Wide, flat interfluves in the Ob, Irtysh and Yenisei basins, located south of 59° N. sh., included within the subzone southern taiga. It is dominated by dark coniferous forests - urmans, and huge watershed sphagnum swamps. Deciduous forests - birch and aspen - are also very widespread in the subzone, most often secondary, i.e., those that arose on the site of coniferous forests previously brought down by man.

Urmany is the densest and most impenetrable forest of the Siberian taiga. They occupy wet, but still better than watersheds, drained river banks, slopes of watershed ridges and elevations among sphagnum and grass bogs. West Siberian Urmans (In the Tomsk region and in the south Krasnoyarsk Territory they are also called “black forests”, or “black forests”) consist mainly of dark coniferous trees. The predominant species in them everywhere is Siberian fir; spruce and cedar are mixed into it in significant quantities. Usually, under the dense tree canopy in the urman, there is always a continuous carpet of various mosses, above which rise individual clumps of wood sorrel, ferns, mynika, stoneworts, ozhiki, wintergreens, blueberries, lingonberries, speedwells and other flowering plants. But in general, the grass cover, due to strong shading by tree crowns, is poor in color and monotonous; It is almost impossible to find a plant with bright flowers here. Under the canopy of fir, spruce and cedar, in some places there is a dense layer of shrubs and an undergrowth of rowan, bird cherry, and elderberry, and in the western part of the subzone, here and there linden is found, penetrating here through the Urals from European Russia.

In a typical urban setting, “...under the thick branches of spruces, cedars and fir trees, it is damp and gloomy. Many trees have dried up and stand dead, covered with shaggy tufts of gray moss instead of needles. There are no bushes, no flowers, not even grass in this tall, dark taiga. Only in particularly damp places did feathery ferns grow, and small white stars, hardly worthy of the name flowers, were scattered among the plump moss. Everywhere there is dead wood of various ages - both blown down this year and accumulated over decades; decay is slow in the north. Old, long-fallen logs were overgrown with lush green moss, but their middles rotted, turning into dust. Dark branches, apparently recently broken off by a storm, hang on the trees, intertwining with each other and with living branches and old dead wood, forming an impenetrable thicket: a real cemetery of branches and trunks! In some places, only by using animal, mostly bear, paths can a person move through this chaos of windfall and dead wood in the summer. A huge cedar, recently felled by years and a storm, tore out a layer of earth, exposing fresh soil and blocking the path with its sole sticking up. Its trunk was torn apart by the fall of a thick canopy of branches, and the sun shines through the resulting gap, flooding the branches of living trees bent over the corpse with its rays and playing on the bark of the fallen giant. Trees grow slowly in the taiga, stretching towards the light and fighting each other for it. And decades will pass until the descendants replace the ancestor, and a canopy of branches stretches over it. There, above, a passing breeze gently sways the peaks. The ticking of tits and the gentle voices of warblers can be heard from above. Below, in the colonnade of tree trunks, it is dead and quiet. Just as neither the rays of the sun nor the vibrations of waves penetrate into the sea to a certain depth, so the lower tier of the tall taiga is deprived of the sun, and even strong gusts of wind are almost not reflected on it. Only midges hover in clouds in the motionless frozen air... animals and birds are rare here - the taiga is dead, deserted" (N.A. Bobrinsky. Animal world and nature of the USSR, M., 1948, p. 48).

The coniferous forests of the southern taiga are highly productive. In some areas, the wood supply in urmans and pine forests reaches 400–500 cubic meters. m per hectare. Due to the higher percentage of forested area and good forest productivity, the wood supply in the southern taiga subzone is approximately twice as high as the wood supply in the middle taiga subzone of Western Siberia.

In the southern part of the Western Siberian taiga there are no fewer swamps than in the more northern taiga regions already known to us. In particular, here, on the flat interfluve of the Irtysh and Ob, is the famous Vasyugan swamp in Siberia.

The coniferous taiga forests of Western Siberia are separated from the forest-steppe located to the south by a narrow border of almost pure deciduous forests. The birch and aspen that form these forests are small-leaved and light-loving species. They do not suffer from frost, bear fruit abundantly, and their light seeds are well transported by the wind. In the forest zone, these trees are almost always the first to populate areas that, for some reason (clearings, fires), have been cleared of other tree species. Even in the southernmost part of the zone, where deciduous forests currently predominate everywhere, among them you can find an admixture of preserved spruce, fir and cedar, and in the grass cover there are a lot of typical taiga plants. Thus, the majority of deciduous forests in the forest zone of Siberia are secondary. Primary “belniks” are not often found even in the southernmost part of the forest belt. From an economic point of view, these forests are of very great interest, since the supply of wood in them in some places reaches 200–400 cubic meters. m per 1 hectare.

The taiga of Eastern Siberia is formed under conditions of a more continental and harsh climate than in the western half of Siberia. There is less precipitation here, and permafrost is widespread almost everywhere. Unlike Western Siberia, the relief here is more rugged, and its amplitudes in some places are so significant that they cause phenomena of vertical zonation in the distribution of vegetation and soil cover. Characteristic feature The East Siberian taiga is also relatively less swampy. Swamps are found here mainly on flat, poorly drained interfluves; peat bogs, so common in the west, are almost completely absent in Eastern Siberia. Due to these conditions, primarily podzolic soils develop everywhere, usually relatively thin and more or less rocky. Particularly widespread here are weakly podzolic soils, which form on weathering products (eluvium) of hard bedrock. A typical podzolic horizon is expressed in them only in the form of separate spots and is not continuous.

In addition to podzolic soils, in the taiga of Central Siberia, in areas of the so-called “wet taiga” - flat interfluves or at the bottom of wide river valleys - various swamp soils are also found. They form most often on loamy soils.

In the extreme east of the Central Siberian Plateau, within the Central Yakut Lowland, among the taiga, on carbonate loess-like loams, there are significant areas of chernozem-like and even solonetzic soils.

The vegetation cover of the East Siberian taiga also has a very unique character. Light, mostly larch forests predominate almost everywhere here. The dark coniferous taiga is everywhere pushed back by larch far to the south, and even here its massifs usually no longer play any noticeable role. Only within the southern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory can one still often find wet spruce and fir forests.

Such a clearly expressed zonal distribution of various types of forests, as observed in Western Siberia, can no longer be seen beyond the Yenisei. However, the forests of the northern and southern parts Eastern Siberian taiga are still noticeably different from each other.

The northernmost part of the taiga zone on the Central Siberian Plateau is occupied predominantly by sparse forests of Daurian larch, sometimes with a relatively small admixture of low birch. The trees stand here at a considerable distance from one another, and their thin, poorly developed crown does not shade the soil. Due to this, various bushy lichens and especially reindeer moss are extremely widely developed in the ground cover. That is why sparse larch forests in many northern regions of Eastern Siberia are used as winter reindeer pastures. In some places, the forests of the northern part of the Central Siberian Plateau are swamped to one degree or another, although there are, of course, no such large swamps as in Western Siberia.

To the south of the Arctic Circle, larch forests become denser, their swampiness noticeably decreases, and the larch itself here is a tall, thick-trunked tree with a well-developed crown. It is still the main species forming forest plantations, but in some places, especially along river valleys in the Yenisei part of the plateau, spruce and cedar appear under the light canopy of larch. The ground grass cover of such forests is dominated by low-growing wintergreens, bluegrass, reed grass, stoneweed and other plants. Often in the larch taiga there are areas with dense thickets of shrubs - rose hips, various willows, shrubby alder and birch, mountain ash, Siberian juniper.

Of great interest are the vast areas of steppe and forest-steppe vegetation that unexpectedly occur in Yakutia among the larch taiga. Particularly interesting are the forest-steppe areas of the Central Yakut Lowland, located far north of the 60th parallel. “Everything here is full of contradictions,” writes botanist R.I. Abolin, who visited the lowland, “everything here is paradoxical. Chilling sixty-degree cold in winter and sweltering thirty-five-degree heat in summer. Sixty-second degree northern latitude with the accompanying gloomy taiga environment and right there, side by side, feather grass and fescue-forb meadow-steppes, characteristic of much more southern latitudes. Podzolic and peat swamp soils on shallow, permanently frozen soil, and after a few steps there are already well-defined structural solonetzes of various modifications. Almost continuous night in January with its deadening peace and watermelons ripening under the bright sun in August" (R.I. Abolin. Geobotanical and soil description of the Leno-Vilyui Plain, Proceedings of the Commission for the Study of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, vol. X, L„ 1929, pp. 322).

The reasons for the existence of these geographical paradoxes in the Yakut taiga are related both to its very peculiar climate and to the activities of the local population. With very high summer temperatures and exceptional dryness (only 200 mm of precipitation falls here per year), one has to “... be surprised not at all that in Central Yakutia we encounter the so-called inversion (disturbance - N.M.) of plant and soil zones, expressed in the spotty penetration of southern steppe formations far to the north, but rather the fact that taiga with its accompanying complex of phenomena still dominates there, and not semi-deserts of the southern type.”

The existence of forests in these seemingly very unfavorable conditions is due to the widespread occurrence of permafrost here. In spring, woody vegetation in areas with permafrost receives a sufficient amount of moisture from melting snow; In summer, thawing permafrost horizons release the moisture that accumulated in them during last year's autumn rains. For the same reasons, it is possible to engage in farming here without resorting to artificial irrigation during the hot and very dry summer.

Except climatic conditions, the wide distribution of forest-steppe and meadow landscapes in Central Yakutia was greatly facilitated by human activity. Both the Yakuts and the Russians, who are engaged in agriculture or cattle breeding here, annually develop new areas of the taiga, gradually turning them into meadows or arable land.

The southern strip of the East Siberian taiga is characterized by a very wide distribution pine forests in the western part and dense larch forests in the east. In addition, dark coniferous forests, consisting mainly of spruce and cedar, are more common here than in the north, and occupy not only river valleys, but even some elevated and better moistened interfluve spaces.

Pine forests are especially typical for the Angara valley, along which they stretch in a strip 50–60 km wide. Under the spreading crowns of tall trees there is usually either a shrub layer of Daurian rhododendron, alder and rose hips, or a thick carpet of shiny dark green lingonberry leaves. Sometimes the ground cover of a pine forest is also formed by grasses: reed grass, hellebore and others. The wide distribution of pine along the Angara and in general in the southern part of the East Siberian taiga is explained, on the one hand, by the predominance of sandstones and river sands among the sediments here, on which light soils of sandy composition are formed, and on the other hand, by the ability of pine to settle in burnt areas; in addition, it suffers less from forest fires than other conifers.

East of the Lena the taiga becomes more monotonous. Here, almost everywhere again, “leaf bugs” predominate, sometimes light and dry, sometimes more moist with a ground cover of moss and shade-loving forest grasses (In the extreme east, in the middle part of the Aldan valley, individual representatives of the Far Eastern flora appear in the taiga. In particular, here they often you can find a unique Ayan spruce, which penetrated here through the mountain ranges from the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk).

Speaking about the forest vegetation of Siberia, we cannot help but dwell on the enormous and ever-increasing impact that the economic activities of the population of the taiga region have on it. Although to this day the vast expanses of the taiga are populated very unevenly and, in general, still relatively poorly populated, the results of human economic activity have had a very significant impact on its appearance. Without taking them into account, it is now impossible to form an idea of ​​the vegetation cover of the Siberian taiga.

For many centuries, the population of the taiga zone used it in a variety of ways. natural resources. Forest areas were cut down and uprooted for arable land, some of the swamp areas were drained, and taiga meadows were used for haymaking and grazing. All this led to a significant change in vegetation cover in many, sometimes very large areas of the Siberian taiga.

Particularly great changes have occurred here as a result of enormous forest fires, the main cause of which in the taiga is the careless handling of fire by its population. A fire left unextinguished, or even an unextinguished cigarette in the dry season, can cause a forest fire that spreads hundreds of kilometers in a few days. Many fires also occurred as a result of unsuccessful “burnings” - the burning of forest areas intended for development as arable land and meadows. The systematic burning of bushes and dry grass to improve existing pastures and hayfields is also dangerous. Just 30–40 years ago, “burnings” were still so “in use” among the inhabitants of the taiga that, for example, there are known cases when forest burning was undertaken in order to... lingonberries grow better or to make it easier to hunt elk. Just a few decades ago, by figuratively acad. V.L. Komarova, “...the main consumer of the Siberian forest was fire” (V.L. Komarov. Vegetation of Siberia. Natural productive forces of Russia, vol. V. Plant world, L., 1924, p. 5). Indeed, traces of past fires can be found literally everywhere in the taiga. They appear before our eyes either in the form of a lifeless recent burn, consisting of a colonnade of black charred trunks, or in the form of a cemetery of logs that have already fallen to the ground, between which thickets of fireweed with its bright crimson-red flowers make their way, or in the form of a light, young birch tree, settled after a fire on the site of a thick urman or centuries-old “leafweed”.

It is quite natural that areas with denser populations, located near the valleys of large Siberian rivers and in the south of the forest zone, suffer the most from fires. There are essentially almost no primary taiga massifs here anymore. However, even in the most sparsely populated areas, burnt areas and secondary birch or pine forests that appear in their place sometimes occupy up to 30–40% of the former forested area of ​​the territory.

Forest fires are not the same in size and the nature of their impact on the vegetation cover of the taiga. There are “grassroots” fires that consume only the lower layers of forest vegetation. In this case, the fire completely destroys the grass and moss cover, as well as thickets of bushes, but not all trees die. Spruce and fir suffer the most from such a fire, less so do pine with its roots going deep into the soil and adult larch, the trunk of which is protected from fire by thick and poorly burning bark. Often, especially in windy weather, “top” fires occur, when the fire engulfs the crowns of trees and spreads along the tops from one tree to another.

But most often the entire forest burns, turning into a continuous sea of ​​​​fire, covered in clouds of dark smoke. This is the most dangerous fire in the taiga: it completely destroys forest areas, and in peat bogs the fire penetrates into the lower layers of the soil, where peat often continues to burn for many weeks after the end of the forest fire. Animals and birds die in the fire of a large fire; It happens that a lonely industrialist is suddenly caught in the smoke and flames by a fire.

To this day, Siberian old-timers still remember the big forest fires of 1915. The spring then was dry and hot. The fires, which broke out simultaneously in several places, quickly spread to the territory of Western and Central Siberia, spread to the forests of Yakutia and covered a vast territory of more than 1.5 million square meters. km. A thick veil of smoke spread over almost the entire Siberian taiga this summer. At times the smoke was so thick that navigation on large rivers was suspended and train traffic on the Siberian River was disrupted. railway, where signal lights were lit during the day. The fires continued throughout the summer of 1915 and completely destroyed forests over an area of ​​more than 125 thousand square meters. km.

Over the past 30 years, thanks to radical improvements in forestry, the number of fires in the Siberian taiga has sharply decreased. The use of effective means of combating them, in particular forestry aviation, makes it possible to quickly destroy any source of forest fire. Therefore, such grandiose fires that happened in the taiga at the beginning of this century are now no longer possible.

The vegetation cover of the taiga recovers very slowly after a fire.

The process of restoration of Western Siberian Urmans after a fire, as described by V.S. Algazin, proceeds in the following way: “Aspen and birch are the first (of the tree species - N.M.) to populate the spaces freed from coniferous species. A temporary grouping of birch taiga – “belnik” – appears. Lush and lush grasses are populated by young... burnt areas. Moisture-loving tough grasses - reed grass, are densely intertwined with multi-colored peas and vetch. The blue brushes of the spur, the huge balls of inflorescences of the bear's bunch and other umbrellas reach a height of a person. Under the cover of light-loving aspens and birches, an undergrowth of common willow, bird cherry, and rowan develops. Later, in lower tier, in the shade of already mature birch and aspen trees, shade-loving young fir and spruce trees are growing. Decades will pass. Shade-loving conifers will develop under the cover of deciduous plantings. There will come a phase mixed forest. Then light-loving birch and aspen will begin to experience an increasing lack of light. Coniferous species will begin to displace them...” (V.S. Algazin. Vegetation of the Ob region, Novosibirsk, 1939, p. 17).

Only after hundreds of years will the burned taiga be able to acquire its former appearance, but very often this does not happen at all, since as a result of the fire, forests of small-leaved trees or pine forests finally settle in place of dark coniferous forests.

Environmental conditions in the Siberian taiga are favorable for the life of a larger number of animals than in the tundra or steppe zone. Therefore, its fauna is distinguished by significant diversity.

In the taiga, animals are provided with abundant and varied food throughout the year. They include seeds of coniferous trees, berries, which are found in abundance in vast taiga swamps, and lush grasses of riverine meadows. The seeds of coniferous trees: cedar, pine, spruce, and larch are especially important in the nutrition of taiga animals. Most taiga rodents feed on them - squirrels, chipmunks, voles, as well as many forest birds.

Some of these animals, in years when there is no harvest of cones, undertake long journeys to those parts of the taiga where more cones are found. Such, for example, are the well-known periodic migrations of squirrels or the migration of nutcrackers in Siberia.

Of the coniferous seeds, the so-called pine nuts have the most valuable feeding qualities. In the fall, when the cones on the cedar ripen, the dense and dark cedar forests are bustling with activity. The forest is filled with the piercing cry of nutcrackers, squirrels and nimble chipmunks scurry through the trees. Each of these small taiga animals sometimes stores several kilograms of nuts in their burrows and nests for the winter. The nutcracker, which arranges warehouses for the nuts it collects, sometimes at a distance of several kilometers from the cedar forest, thereby contributes to the settlement of cedar in new places, in particular in burnt areas.

In the taiga, animals can hide well from their enemies among the dense crowns of trees or in thickets of taiga bushes. Almost all taiga birds make their nests in trees; Animals living in the taiga often have special adaptations for climbing tree trunks. Thus, the squirrel and chipmunk have tenacious paws with sharp claws for this purpose; Sable and large predators such as lynx and bear are excellent tree climbers.

During the harsh and cold winter Living conditions here are better than in the tundra. Under the canopy of trees at this time it is warmer than in open places, the winds are weaker, the snow cover is looser and deeper. Most of the inhabitants of the taiga do not leave it for the winter. Moreover, even many “aliens” from the tundra winter in the northern regions of the taiga, for example reindeer, ermine, and sometimes arctic fox. However, some birds, mainly waterfowl, leave the taiga in late autumn, and a number of taiga animals sleep deeply all winter in their burrows and dens under a warm snow “blanket”. Therefore, brown bears and chipmunks are not visible in the winter taiga; in the most severe frosts, the squirrel does not appear on the tree.

Of the large animals in the taiga, the most typical are the brown bear, the shaggy wolverine, predatory lynx, a forest giant - elk, or elk, whose weight sometimes reaches 500 kg. Foxes are ubiquitous in the taiga - red, cross or gray fox; however, the particularly prized silver fox is rare. Of the small, but very typical for the taiga, predators in Siberia live the sable, the yellow fluffy weasel, the forest ferret, and in the southern half the badger.

Various rodents are especially numerous in the taiga. Of these, the largest commercial value has squirrel. In many areas it is the main object of hunting, and every year Siberian hunters prepare more than 10 million soft dark gray skins of this animal. In addition to the squirrel, you can find everywhere here: a small, very active chipmunk, with five characteristic dark stripes on the back, a white hare, a flying squirrel, and various mouse-like rodents. There are also a lot of ermine and weasels in the taiga forests; in some places beavers and graceful roe deer have survived to this day.

The world of birds is even richer and more diverse. The forest belt of Siberia is home to about 200 species of different birds, many of which are typical taiga inhabitants. These include, for example, capercaillie, hazel grouse, three-toed woodpecker, crossbills, nutcracker, kuksha and many others. Numerous waterfowl live in taiga reservoirs in summer - geese and ducks, and waders live in meadows and swamps. It is characteristic that some of these birds have specially adapted specifically to taiga reservoirs; for example, one of the ducks, the goldeneye, even makes its nests in the hollows of trees growing next to the lakes. However, there are few songbirds in the taiga.

Of course, not all areas of the Siberian taiga are evenly populated by animals and birds. The distribution of certain groups of animals is closely related to environmental conditions. Most taiga animals prefer to settle in river valleys and old burnt areas, already covered with thick grasses or young birch trees. The fauna of the dense and dark urmans, watershed “leaved forests” and swampy dark coniferous forests is much poorer. Here, in areas rarely visited by humans, the bear makes its den, the sable stays, and the lynx hides. There are almost no birds in the dense taiga.

Forest-steppe zone

South of the line running from Tyumen to the northeastern regions of the Novosibirsk region, deciduous forests no longer play a predominant role in the vegetation cover of the West Siberian Plain. The Oki here breaks up into separate massifs and groves, between which there are vast open spaces occupied by mixed-grass meadow and steppe vegetation. With its appearance, both soils and fauna change noticeably: instead of whitish taiga podzols, dark fertile chernozems lie in such areas, and along with forest animals, inhabitants of open steppe spaces are increasingly found. These changes mark a transition to a more southern zone - a strip of Western Siberian forest-steppe.

The forest-steppe zone stretches as a continuous strip from 200 to 500 km wide in the southern part of the Great Siberian Plain, in the space from the Urals to the river. Obi. Here, in some places, its southern border extends even into the territory of the northern regions of Kazakhstan. East of the Ob due to the more rugged terrain and several big amount precipitation (The increase in precipitation is associated here with a greater altitude of the territory above sea level), forest-steppe landscapes no longer form a continuous strip, but are distributed in the form of separate “islands” and spots, isolated from each other by sections of forest or mountain taiga spaces. The largest of these forest-steppe “islands” occupy a significant territory and are known in Siberia under the not entirely accurate, from a geographical point of view, name “steppes”. These are, for example, the Biysk, Kuznetsk, Minusinsk, Abakan, Krasnoyarsk, Kansk and Balagan “steppes”, located at the foot of the Altai and Sayan Mountains, as well as the vast “steppes” of Southern Transbaikalia.

The climate of the forest-steppe zone is less severe than the climate of other regions of Siberia. Winter here is shorter and somewhat warmer than the neighboring taiga strip; summer, compared to the more southern parts of the real steppes, is less arid and less hot. However, the average annual temperatures in the Siberian forest-steppe are still significantly lower than in the forest-steppe zone of the European part of the Union and usually range from –2 to +2°. This is due to the lower winter temperatures here. The average air temperature during the coldest month of the year, January, in the forest-steppe zone of Siberia ranges from –18 to –22°, and on some days frosts down to –45–50° occur.

The transition from winter to spring in the forest-steppe area is usually very abrupt. In just a few days in April, the snow cover melts away. Already at the beginning of May, meadows and birch copses are turning green everywhere. Warm, and in some years even dry, summer begins imperceptibly. Air temperatures here in summer are approximately the same as in the European forest-steppe - in July they range on average from 20 to 22–23°.

Already in September, and in the eastern regions even at the end of August, the first night frosts begin. However, during the day throughout September, and sometimes even the first half of October, the weather is clear and relatively warm. Only at the very end of October - beginning of November, forest-steppe areas are covered with snow everywhere and winter comes into its own with strong cold winds.

There is relatively little precipitation in the forest-steppe zone, from 300 to 400 mm per year. The greatest number of them occurs in the warm season: from May to the end of September, up to 70% of the annual amount falls. Unlike more northern zones, maximum precipitation occurs here in the first half of the growing season, and the rainiest months are June and the first half of July. More or less rainfall during this period greatly affects the yield of grains and other agricultural crops. Systematically, after 3-4 years, the beginning of summer is very hot and there is much less precipitation than in normal years. In this case, crops in the forest-steppe region noticeably suffer from drought.

The most typical soils for the forest-steppe are chernozem soils, which are very widespread here. In its typical form, chernozem consists of two horizons: the upper, humus, which is almost black in color, and the lower, the so-called carbonate. In the latter you can always see white veins and accumulations of lime.

Chernozems have long been known as the most fertile and agriculturally valuable soils of the Siberian forest-steppe. They are distinguished by a high humus content (from 6 to 15%), significant thickness of the humus horizon, granular or lumpy structure, which ensures good soil moisture and air penetration into it. In addition, chernozem soils contain many nutrients necessary for plant life: nitrogen, potassium and phosphoric acid. Even after many years of plowing, they relatively slowly lose their high quality and remain quite fertile.

Within the forest-steppe of Western Siberia, a change in the nature of chernozems is very clearly observed in the direction from the northern border of the zone to its southern limits. In the north, leached chernozems predominate, greatly altered by woody vegetation that has settled on them; in the middle part they are replaced by the most fertile rich chernozems, in which the thickness of the humus horizon reaches 50–60 cm. Finally, near the southern border of the forest-steppe, the rich chernozems gradually transform into the so-called ordinary chernozems. A similar change in the same variants of chernozem soils occurs in the largest of the forest-steppe “islands” of Eastern Siberia.

As a rule, chernozem soils occupy vast areas on well-drained watersheds and slopes of interfluves. Low-lying areas of relief and weakly dissected interfluves, the flow of water from which is very difficult, are unfavorable for the formation of chernozem-type soils. In such places on the plain of Western Siberia, instead of chernozems, either meadow-salt soils or solonetzes and solods are developed.

In some areas of the southern half of the Western Siberian forest-steppe, saline soils occupy up to 25–30% of the territory. Solonetzes and solonchaks are especially common in flat depressions between ridges, on the shores of lakes and along the outskirts of swamps. Due to their physical and chemical properties, they are unsuitable for agriculture. On the contrary, meadow-saline soils, especially widespread in the Barabinsky forest-steppe, are very fertile. On these soils in Baraba there are good meadows or birch forests. Many areas of the Barabinsky forest-steppe, occupied by meadow-solonchak soils, are plowed up after reclamation work and produce high yields.

The climatic and soil conditions of the Siberian forest-steppe zone are generally very favorable for agriculture, and its meadows and mixed-grass steppes provide an excellent basis for the widespread development of productive livestock farming. Thanks to this, the forest-steppe strip has long been the most developed and densely populated region of Siberia. A significant part of the crops of grain and industrial crops is concentrated within its borders, and the forest-steppe is rightfully called the “breadbasket of Siberia.”

The economic activities of the inhabitants of Siberia radically changed the former landscapes of the Siberian forest-steppe and, first of all, their vegetation cover. Humans have made especially great changes to the nature of the vegetation of the lowland forest-steppe of Western Siberia.

Huge tracts of once virgin steppes here have already been plowed almost everywhere, swampy meadows in many places have been drained and turned into hayfields, and birch copses have been cut down, and in their place arable land now also lies. Almost everywhere, the most common landscapes are endless, wind-blown wheat crops, or mown meadows with tall shocks of fragrant hay. Only far on the horizon one can see a dark green border of still surviving birch groves and groves, and in the swampy depressions, those untouched by man turn yellow tall thickets reeds and reeds, serving as a refuge for the feathered inhabitants of the forest-steppe.

However, in some areas of the forest-steppe, which lie relatively far from railways, and especially within the forest-steppe “islands” of Eastern Siberia, areas of either virgin steppes, sparse southern birch forests, or meadows that are still little used by the population have been preserved to this day. Only from them can we reconstruct the picture of the virgin vegetation that spread everywhere in the forest-steppe just a few decades ago.

When you first travel through the Siberian forest-steppe by rail, at first glance, especially in the middle of summer, it seems very similar to the forest-steppe of the European part of the Soviet Union. However, you just have to take a closer look, and it’s not difficult to see that the Siberian forest-steppe differs in many ways from the European one. These differences are very clearly noticeable immediately after crossing the Urals.

The forest-steppe zone is located in Siberia to the north than on the Russian Plain. Its border does not go south of 53° N. sh., i.e. it lies 300–500 km north than in the western part of the Russian Plain, where, for example, within the Moldavian SSR the forest-steppe extends only to 48° N. w. The Siberian forest-steppe has a more continental climate: winters here are colder and there is less precipitation than in the western regions of our country. The uniqueness of the soils and vegetation of the Western Siberian forest-steppe is also largely explained by the exclusively flat nature of the relief and its weak dissection by river valleys. The main elements of the relief here are wide, poorly drained interfluves, which in the northern part are sometimes significantly swampy.

All these features of the Siberian forest-steppe very clearly affect the nature of its vegetation cover. In contrast to the forest-steppe of the more western regions of our country, where oak almost everywhere predominates in the composition of tree vegetation, Siberia is characterized by a wide distribution of birch (In addition to birch, aspen and pine are also found in the Siberian forest-steppe. Less often and mainly within the “islands” of the Eastern forest-steppe In Siberia you can see small copses consisting of Siberian larch, in which here and there individual specimens of Siberian spruce are found as an admixture), but oak is not found here at all.

Small birch copses, called kolkas by local residents, in many places in the northern half of the Siberian forest-steppe constitute the most characteristic element of its landscapes. They are located on flat watershed ridges and on the slopes of valleys, and in some places they descend onto slightly swampy river terraces. In the south of the West Siberian forest-steppe there are significantly fewer pegs and the area occupied by them is already small. But even here, seemingly in a real steppe, around the entire horizon you see an almost continuous green strip of woody vegetation. True, coming closer, you can see that this strip consists of individual pegs scattered at a considerable distance from each other, and between them there are always larger ones located in area open areas with meadow and meadow-steppe vegetation.

The vegetation cover of the Siberian forest-steppe is highly variegated; Depending on the topography and the degree of moisture, even neighboring areas in their vegetation are sometimes very different from one another.

In addition to birch forests, significant areas in the Siberian forest-steppe are occupied by areas of meadow, steppe and swamp vegetation, as well as pine forests, salt licks and salt marshes.

Despite the very wide variety of vegetation cover in the forest-steppe zone, the main, most widespread and characteristic type of vegetation is herbaceous vegetation. Its composition is dominated everywhere by perennial plants, either steppe and meadow grasses, or meadow-steppe forbs.

The most important differences between the herbaceous vegetation of the forest-steppe and the vegetation of the more southern regions of the true steppes are the noticeable predominance of dicotyledonous, often typically meadow, plants over the drier-loving steppe grasses, the greater height of the herbage and the greater diversity of its constituent plants. In addition, the vegetation cover in the forest-steppe covers the soil relatively evenly, and bare, devoid of vegetation areas are found here only as an exception.

It is quite natural that the nature of the vegetation cover of various regions of the forest-steppe zone, in accordance with the characteristics of their natural conditions, undergoes significant changes “from place to place.” They are especially noticeable when crossing the zone from north to south within the West Siberian Lowland. As you move from the northern border to the south of the forest-steppe, you can clearly observe a gradual decrease in the number and area of ​​areas with woody vegetation, as well as a reduction in the proportion of meadow herbs in the composition of herbaceous vegetation. At the same time, the role of more dry-loving cereals increases, and the species composition of plants becomes more uniform. Finally, in the extreme south, areas appear that no longer have continuous vegetation cover.

Taking into account all these changes in vegetation cover, the West Siberian forest-steppe can be divided into two subzones - the northern forest-steppe and the southern, or typical forest-steppe.

The northern forest-steppe subzone is also characterized by significant forest cover, reaching 30–40% in sparsely populated areas, and continuous (100%) turf soil cover. The vegetation here is distinguished by significant diversity, but no more than 40% of typical steppe species are found in its composition. In many areas of the subzone, especially in the east within the Barabinsk “steppe”, vast wetlands - “zaimishchas” (Zamishchas in Western Siberia are called heavily moistened depressions covered with thickets of tall (up to 2–2.5 m) marsh plants) are very widespread : reed, cattail and reed) and “ryam”.

The woody vegetation of the northern forest-steppe consists mainly of birch and aspen, forming copses and groves. Directly south of the border In the forest zone, they still occupy quite significant areas and sometimes stretch continuously for several kilometers. Both in forest areas and in individual forests, low fluffy birch predominates everywhere; mixed with it in greater or lesser quantities is aspen and warty birch. These trees rarely form dense stands. Usually, under the continuous canopy of their crowns, a cover of herbaceous meadow-forest or meadow-swamp vegetation is spread on the soil surface.

Forest areas of the northern forest-steppe subzone are a very characteristic and stable element of its landscapes. In those places where human activity has not yet affected the natural course of their development, woody vegetation gradually occupies larger areas, settling in the meadow spaces adjacent to the coppices. This process of natural encroachment of forest onto the steppe is expressed more clearly within the Siberian forest-steppe than in the European forest-steppe. The gradual conquest of previously open treeless spaces by woody vegetation is evidenced, in particular, by the nature of the soil cover under birch groves. Most often they are located on leached or degraded chernozems, i.e. soils that were previously formed in open steppe conditions. If the pegs are located in watershed depressions, the solonetzes of these depressions, under the influence of woody vegetation, gradually turn into podzolized soils and the steppe vegetation is forced from here to move to higher areas. In contrast to the European forest-steppe, the process of forest encroachment on the steppe in Western Siberia has spread not only to the strip of thick chernozems, but also to those areas where ordinary steppe chernozems are already found.

The vast open spaces of the northern subzone of the Siberian forest-steppe are most often occupied by so-called steppe meadows. These meadows include plants that are also characteristic of dry meadows in more northern forest areas; but along with them, there are also many dry-loving plants of the southern steppe strip. Among typical meadow plants, various legumes predominate: rank, clover, steppe alfalfa, astragalus; besides them, there are many other flowering plants: meadowsweet, pomegranate, yarrow, anemone, carrot grass, etc. Of the cereals here, most of them are rhizomatous - bent grass, reed grass, bluegrass, and turf grasses - wheatgrass, steppe oats, fescue - are relatively rare .

The vegetation of the northern forest-steppe subzone in the eastern half of the West Siberian Lowland has a somewhat different character. Due to the very flat nature of the relief and the occurrence of groundwater close to the surface, swampy areas of borrowed areas and areas occupied by a kind of meadow-salt-marsh vegetation with a predominance of licorice and salt-loving grass - anestilica - are very widespread here.

In the northernmost part of the Barabinsky forest-steppe you can often find even real sphagnum swamps, occupied by sparse thickets of low-growing ram pine. The vegetation of such swamps has a real taiga character: in addition to oppressed pine, typical taiga swamp plants such as cloudberries, cranberries, wild rosemary, cotton grass, lingonberries and others grow here in abundance. Very often, next to these areas of typical northern vegetation on the chernozem soils of the elevated areas of Baraba, there are birch forests and forb steppe meadows.

The southern subzone of the forest-steppe differs from the more northern regions by a further increase in the proportion of steppe elements in its vegetation composition and a simultaneous reduction of forest elements, both woody and meadow. There are no longer large forests here, and the forest cover of the territory is no more than 15–30%. Among the monotonous herbaceous vegetation, steppe species(up to 60%). The vegetation cover does not completely cover the soil surface, but its turf cover still exceeds 80–90%.

Steppe meadows, characteristic of the northern forest-steppe, are much less common here. They occupy mainly depressions in the relief, the northern slopes of river valleys and the edges of birch groves in depressions. Instead of steppe meadows, mixed-grass meadow steppes appear in the open spaces of a typical forest-steppe. They contain large quantities of dry-loving turf grasses: feather grass and fescue.

The appearance of these plants indicates their good adaptation to the drier climate of a typical forest-steppe. Feather grass and fescue are distinguished by narrow leaves, very often tightly pressed to the stem and covered with thick, faded hairs. Thanks to these devices, evaporation from the surface of the leaves is noticeably reduced. In addition to turf grasses, the herbage of a typical forest-steppe also contains a lot of rhizomatous plants - narrow-leaved bluegrass, wheatgrass, bentgrass, and in the east, within the Trans-Baikal forest-steppe - vodka.

However, the main background of meadow steppes is still formed by comparatively moisture-loving perennial grasses that are diverse in appearance. Inconspicuous grasses seem to be lost among this variety of herbs. “White inflorescences of pomegranate and steppe meadowsweet, yellow umbrellas of carrot grass, blue bells and many other plants with bright multi-colored corollas create a variegated and colorful carpet. In the middle of “Ripe strawberries light up like small red stars scattered in the steppe grass...” (A.V. Kuminova and E.V. Vandakurova. Steppes of Siberia. Novosibirsk, 1949, p. 16).

Of course, compared to the steppe meadows of the northern forest-steppe, the herbs of the southern meadow steppes are less diverse. Only a few meadow-forest plants remain in its composition. However, instead of them a number of more typical forest-steppe and steppe forms: yellow alfalfa, sainfoin, lumbago, some wormwood, asters, etc.

Within a typical forest-steppe, along depressions, on terraces of river valleys and near numerous lakes, solonetzes and solonchaks with their peculiar vegetation are often found. Steppe cereals—fescue and Arzhanets—grow in significant quantities on solonetzes; besides them, here you can find thickets of reed grass, kiptsa and clump of wormwood, licorice and kermek. Unlike solonetzes, on solonchaks between groups of greenish mulberry, solonchak barley and saltworts - sweda and saltwort - bare spots of soil are visible everywhere, sometimes covered with a white coating of salts, forming a dense crust, shiny under the rays of the summer sun.

In some areas of the forest-steppe zone, very unique pine forests are located on sandy river terraces. They are found in the Urals, in the Ob valley, Irkutsk-Balagan and Transbaikal “steppes”.

The so-called “ribbon forests” of the Kulunda forest-steppe are especially interesting. In Kulunda they stretch in long dark green stripes along the sandy slopes of river valleys, standing out sharply among the dry steppe watersheds scorched by the summer sun. The length of individual ribbons of pine forests reaches 150–200 km with a width of 10 to 25 km. They owe their existence among the dry steppe landscape to the close occurrence of groundwater, which under valley sands is most often located no deeper than 1 m, while in the watershed areas of the neighboring Belagach steppe they are found only at a depth of 40–50 m.

The forest-steppe forests are noticeably different from the pine forests of the taiga zone. In the herbaceous and moss layer of the southern forests, along with such northern plants as lingonberries, blueberries, wintergreen and cranberries, there are a lot of real “steppe trees” - fescue, wormwood, caragana, kiptsa, etc.

Due to the significant extent of the Siberian forest-steppe from west to east, the increasing continentality of the climate to the east and the change in the nature of the relief, noticeable changes are occurring in its soil and vegetation cover. Already within the West Siberian Plain, east of the river valley. Ob, as well as in the southern part of Central Siberia, open forest-steppe and steppe spaces occur in the form of separate, sometimes, however, significant “islands”. In some places they penetrate deep into the mountainous regions located here, where they occupy vast basins. Within such open forest-steppe “islands” one can observe a change in the nature of the soil cover and vegetation not only from their northern parts to the south, but also in the form of a kind of “concentric zoning”. The marginal, somewhat elevated areas of the basin are usually forest-steppe in nature - they are dominated by birch copses and steppe meadows. Towards the central sections of the basin, its landscape acquires the more open character of a typical meadow forest-steppe, and in the most depressed part, in some cases, it turns into typical dry steppes, completely devoid of tree vegetation.

One of the most characteristic “islands” of the forest-steppe is the territory of the Kuznetsk Basin, located within the Kemerovo region. It is distinguished by a relatively warm and humid climate, the predominance of leached and degraded chernozems in the soil cover, formed on loess-like loams, and the widespread development of small birch copses on the outskirts. The central part of the basin, which is one of the most densely populated areas of Siberia, is currently almost entirely occupied by fields of grain crops, potatoes and perennial forage grasses. Natural pastures have been preserved here mainly in the less populated outskirts of the basin or in rocky steppe areas unsuitable for agriculture.

Forest-steppe “islands” of significant area are located in the Yenisei basin - along the southern edge of the Central Siberian Plateau, as well as in the intermountain basins of the Sayan and Tuva regions. These include the mixed-grass meadow Krasnoyarsk “steppe” and forest-steppe areas in the area of ​​Kansk, Irkutsk and Balagansk. Small strips of forest-steppe landscapes are also found in Khakassia, the river basin. Abakan and the eastern part of the Minusinsk Basin. However, the vegetation of the basins in the upper Yenisei basin (Minusinsk, Usinsk and Tuva) has a drier, typically steppe character.

In Transbaikalia, with its mountainous terrain, forest-steppe areas are found either in some intermountain basins (Barguzin and Eravin “steppes”), or in the extreme south, along the outskirts of the Selenga and Nerchinsk steppes. It is very characteristic that the vegetation of the Transbaikal forest-steppe contains a large number of plants that penetrated here from the steppes of Mongolia (Mongolian caragana and wormwood, tyrsa and others).

The eastern territories of Russian Asia open from the Ural Mountains to the West Siberian Plain. Its settlement by Russians began in the 16th century, from the time of Ermak’s campaign. The expedition's route ran from the south of the plain.

These territories are still the most densely populated. However, we must remember that already in the 11th century the Novgorodians established trade relations with the population on the lower Ob.

Geographical position

The West Siberian Plain is washed from the north by the harsh Kara Sea. In the east, along the border of the Yenisei River basin, it neighbors the Central Siberian Plateau. The southeast is protected by the snowy foothills of Altai. In the south, the Kazakh small hills became the border of flat territories. Western border, as stated above, are the oldest mountains in Eurasia - the Ural Mountains.

Relief and landscape of the plain: features

A unique feature of the plain is that all the heights on it are very weakly expressed, both in absolute and in relative values. The area of ​​the West Siberian Plain, very low-lying, with many river channels, is swampy on 70 percent of the territory.

The lowland stretches from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the southern steppes of Kazakhstan and almost all is located within the territory of our country. The plain provides a unique opportunity to see five natural zones with their characteristic landscape and climate conditions.

The relief is typical of low-lying river basins. Small hills alternating with swamps occupy the interfluve areas. The south is dominated by areas with saline groundwater.

Natural areas, cities and plain regions

Western Siberia is represented by five natural zones.

(Swampy area in the tundra of the Vasyugan swamps, Tomsk region)

The tundra occupies a narrow strip in the north Tyumen region and almost immediately turns into forest-tundra. In the extreme northern areas you can find massifs of a combination of lichens and mosses of Western Siberia. The area is dominated by swampy terrain, turning into open forest-tundra. Vegetation here includes larch and bushes.

The taiga of Western Siberia is characterized by dark coniferous zones with a variety of cedar, northern spruce and fir. Occasionally you can find pine forests occupying areas between the swamps. Most of the lowland landscape is occupied by endless swamps. One way or another, the whole of Western Siberia is characterized by swampiness, but there is also a unique natural massif here - the largest swamp in the world, the Vasyugan swamp. It occupied large territories in the southern taiga.

(Forest-steppe)

Closer to the south, nature changes - the taiga brightens, turning into forest-steppe. Aspen-birch forests and meadows with coppice appear. The Ob basin is decorated with pine island forests that arose naturally.

The steppe zone occupies the south of the Omsk and southwestern parts of the Novosibirsk regions. Also, the area of ​​distribution of the steppe reaches the western part of the Altai Territory, which includes the Kulundinskaya, Aleiskaya and Biyskaya steppes. The territory of ancient water drainages is occupied by pine forests

(Fields in the taiga of the Tyumen region, Yugra)

The West Siberian Plain provides the opportunity for active land use. It is very rich in oil and almost all of it is lined with production rigs. The region's developed economy attracts new residents. Large cities in the northern and central parts of the West Siberian Plain are well known: Urengoy, Nefteyugansk, Nizhnevartovsk. In the south are the cities of Tomsk, Tyumen, Kurgan, Omsk.

Rivers and lakes of the plain

(Yenisei River on hilly-flat terrain)

Rivers flowing through the West Siberian Lowland flow into the Kara Sea. The Ob is not only the longest river of the plain, but together with its tributary the Irtysh, it is the longest water artery in Russia. However, there are also rivers on the plain that do not belong to the Obi basin - Nadym, Pur, Taz and Tobol.

The territory is rich in lakes. They are divided into two groups according to the nature of their occurrence: some were formed in pits dug by a glacier passing through the lowlands, and some - in places of ancient swamps. The area holds the world record for swampiness.

Plain climate

Western Siberia in its north is covered with permafrost. A continental climate is observed throughout the plain. Most of the plain's territory is very susceptible to the influence of its formidable neighbor - the Arctic Ocean, whose air masses unhindered dominate the lowland region. Its cyclones dictate precipitation and temperature patterns. In areas of the plain where the Arctic, subarctic and temperate zones converge, cyclones often occur, leading to rain. In winter, cyclones generated at the junctions of temperate and arctic zones, soften the frosts in the north of the plains.

More precipitation falls in the north of the plain - up to 600 ml per year. Temperatures in the north in January on average do not rise above 22°C, in the south at the same time frosts reach 16°C. In July in the north and south of the plain, it is 4°C and 22°C, respectively.