WHAT NATURAL ZONE DOES THE VEGETATION OF THE NORTHWESTERN PRECASPIAN BELONG TO?
https://doi.org/10.7868/S0373244417050097
Abstract
The changeover of the vegetation of the steppe zone into the desert zone takes place on the plains of the southeast of the European part of Russia. In 1907, N. A. Dimo and B. A. Keller have proved an existence of special semidesert zone in the Northwestern Precaspian. However, from the geobotanists point of view the term “semidesert” should be used for the name of a natural zone, and the type of vegetation that characterizes a zone should be set on according to dominant life forms (ecobiomorphes) forming a plant community. The paper is justified the affiliation of the Northwestern Precaspian vegetation to the steppe zone, subzone desert steppes. The method of studying the spatial-temporal changes of vegetation was the ecological and topological profiling conducted repeatedly in different years. The Sarpinskaya Lowland and Chyornye Zemli landscapes were studied as a typical for the Northwestern Precaspian. It is established, that the features of vegetation cover is defined by a combination of zonal turf-grasses communities with intrazonal xero-halophytes groups. The displacement of the turf-grasses by Artemisia typical for northern deserts does not occur in the Northwestern Precaspian. Intensive agricultural activity is a cause of degradation of vegetation and anthropogenic desertification of the landscape.
About the Authors
K. M. Petrov
Institute of Earth Sciences
Saint Petersburg State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Yaoming Li
Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences
China
Urumchi, People’s Republic of China
China
Urumchi, People’s Republic of China
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Review
For citations:
Petrov K.M., Li Ya. WHAT NATURAL ZONE DOES THE VEGETATION OF THE NORTHWESTERN PRECASPIAN BELONG TO? Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Geograficheskaya. 2017;(5):119-128. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.7868/S0373244417050097
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