Where is the Vasyugan swamp. Vasyugan swamp, one of the hundred natural wonders of Russia. The meaning of the Vasyugan swamps
The man did quite a few stupid things, for example, he set up a hydroelectric power station, set up a nuclear power plant on the faults of the earth's crust, plowed the Kazakh steppes under the so-called virgin lands, got dust storms that swept entire villages, drilled drilling wells all over the planet.
Not without the help of man and the disappearance of the Aral Sea. The thickness of silt deposits in the Sea of Azov reaches more than twenty meters, about the same, or even more in the Black Sea, and there are suggestions that as a result of the vital activity of marine mollusks and microorganisms, these deposits may one day emerge and the seas will become just underground reservoirs.
Even Lake Baikal, which we are so proud of, is gradually turning into a swamp, like all reservoirs with stagnant water. This is how the coastal zone looks like - green mud instead of crystal water. The marsh algae "spirogyra" has captured vast expanses along the coast:
Nature, as it were, begins to take revenge on us for its barbaric attitude towards it, for the destruction of all life and perhaps not far off that day, the oxygen necessary for our life will simply disappear and then new forms of life will appear on earth instead of us. Which are already emerging in our swamps.
In the center of the Siberian Federal District, between the Ob and Irtysh rivers, there is the Vasyugan Swamp, the largest not only in Russia, but also in the world.
Most of this unique natural area is located on the territory of the Tomsk region, including the Novosibirsk, Omsk and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Districts.
The area of this swamp, as already mentioned, is the largest in the world and is about 53-55 thousand square meters. km, which exceeds the size of such European countries as
The dimensions of the swamp in length and width are approximately 570 by 320 km.
According to scientists, the waterlogging of this area began about 10,000 years ago and continues to this day.
- Over the past 500 years, the swamp has quadrupled in size.
Local legends speak of the ancient Vasyugan Sea-Lake, but geologists say that the Great Vasyugan Swamp did not occur through the overgrowth of ancient lakes, but as a result of the advance of swamps on land under the influence of a humid climate and favorable orographic conditions.
Initially, on the site of the current single swamp massif, there were 19 separate plots with a total area of 45,000 square meters. km, but gradually the quagmire swallowed up the surroundings, like the onset of desert sands.
Today, this region is still a classic example of active, "aggressive" swamp formation: the interesting fact is that the swamps continue to grow, increasing on average by 800 hectares per year.
The entire Internet is cracking because the Chinese are cutting down the taiga in Siberia, but the fact that every year 800 hectares grows only in the Vasyugan Swamp does not bother anyone.
There are more than 800 thousand lakes here, many rivers and streams originate, and the moisture evaporated from the surface maintains the climate balance and is carried even to the territory of Eastern Siberia and Kazakhstan. The climate in the area of the Vasyugan swamp is continental and humid. The average temperature in January is -20 °C, in July +17 °C. Snow cover 40–80 cm high lies from October to April on average 175 days a year.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a resolution on the creation of the Vasyugansky state natural reserve on the territory of the largest swamp in the Northern Hemisphere. It is located in the adjacent territories of the Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions, the press service of the Russian government reported.
Flora and fauna
Wetlands are the last refuge for many rare and endangered species of animals and birds driven from habitats transformed by humans, and the basis for maintaining the traditional nature management of small peoples, in particular, the indigenous inhabitants of Western Siberia.
Among the plants of swamps and lakes, various medicinal herbs, as well as berries, which are found in abundance in swamps, are of primary value: cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, etc.
Vasyugan swamps consider a variety of insects, animals, fish, birds to be their home. During the migration period, waterfowl and waders stop to rest on them.
According to the Institute of Animal Ecology and Systematics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, up to 60% of the total number of ducks fly in the period of spring migration with a diffuse front through swamp systems, and only 40% - along the valleys of large rivers.
Godwit and curlew, various birds of prey, including the peregrine falcon, nest in the marshes. It was on the Vasyugan plain that the thin-billed curlew was last seen, which is considered to be an almost extinct species of birds.
peregrine falcon
peregrine falcon
In places where swamps border forests and rivers and lakes lie, elks, minks, sables, otters are found, hazel grouses and wood grouses are found. Until the mid-80s of the last century, reindeer were found in the swamps, but today their population has practically disappeared.
In the tributaries of the rivers originating from the Great Vasyugan swamp, there are about 20 species of fish. In recent years, bream, pike perch, carp, and verkhovka have become common in local reservoirs. Vulnerable and rare species of fish in the area are nelma, peled, lamprey, and ruff.
The significance of the swamp for the region
The Vasyugan swamp is the main source of fresh water in the region (water reserves up to 400 km³), this is the region where there are huge peat reserves. Explored reserves are more than 1 billion tons (2% of the world), the average depth is 2.4 m, the maximum is 10 m. The most important function of the swamp is to purify the atmosphere, for which it is called a giant natural filter. The peat bogs of Siberia absorb toxic substances, sequester carbon and thus prevent the greenhouse effect by saturating the air with oxygen.
Historical facts
The deserted Vasyugan moss peat bogs are a "geographical trend" in the north of the Tomsk region, which in the old days was called the Narym Territory. Historically, these were places of exile for political prisoners.
The first Russian settlers founded the Tyumen (1586), Narym (1596) and Tomsk (1604) prisons shortly after the completion of Yermak's military expedition (1582–1585), which marked the beginning of the conquest of the Siberian Khanate in 1607. Judging by the documents found in peat bogs, by 1720 in the Narym Territory, the newly arrived population lived in 12 settlements.
From 1835, a systematic settlement of exiles began (a new influx of exiles came to Vasyugan in the 1930s–1950s).
Black Migration and Black Gold
Later, the more active development of Western Siberia was facilitated by the landlessness of the peasants of the central provinces as a result of the reforms of 1861, and especially the Stolypin agrarian Russophobic reform of 1906. "for thinning the European part of Russia". When the whole villages of peasants were loaded into Stolypin wagons, along with cattle and all belongings, and resettled in Siberia. The corpses of animals and people were buried right along the railway track at the stop stations. People not adapted to such a cruel climate of Siberia in the first winters simply died out.
The entire Internet knows about the Ukrainian Holodomor, but no one writes about how Stolypin destroyed the Russian people with his reforms. They tried to erase the whole truth about Stolypin's atrocities from memory and even try to erect monuments to him. But the Russian people don't forget anything...
In 1949, oil was found in the western part of the swamp, the Kargasoksky district was nicknamed the “oil Klondike”, by the early 1970s more than 30 oil and gas fields had already been discovered in Vasyugansky (Pionerny) and Luginetsky (Pudino) regions.
In 1970, the construction of the Alexandrovskoye-Tomsk-Anzhero-Sudzhensk oil pipeline began.
In 1976, the Nizhnevartovsk-Parabel-Kuzbass gas pipeline.
Ecology
Despite the almost complete absence of settlements in the area of the Vasyugan swamps, with the development of civilization, a variety of factors began to have a negative impact on a unique natural object. Peat extraction disturbs the natural landscape of the Vasyugan plain, there is a problem of deforestation, the negative consequences of draining swamps and poaching lead to the destruction of unique flora and fauna.
Heavy tracked vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, construction and drilling activities, oil spills and the use of water in drilling processes are damaging the swamp ecosystem. Industrial water runoff constantly enters the rivers, tourists, poachers, hunters leave tons of garbage behind.
Also, the second stages of rockets launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome pose a big problem: falling into swamps, they pollute them with the remnants of highly toxic rocket fuel - heptyl. Analysis of samples of water, soil and plants from raised bogs collected in contaminated areas showed that the content of heptyl in some of them is 5 times higher than the MPC.
Swamp fires
However, the most dangerous and most frequently repeated anthropogenic impact on the ecosystems of Vasyugan is fires, which destroy all natural complexes of swamps, including in winter. As a result, many intramarsh lakes of pyrogenic genesis appear, forest stands and many animals die. The growth of lakes reduces the flow of water from the already swampy forests.
In the 1920s, a seven-year fire in peat bogs on the territory of the modern Northern region of the Novosibirsk region led to the formation of the largest lake Tenis in the south of Western Siberia. Subsequently, its basin deepened in some places to 11–18 meters, the area of the water surface approached 19 square meters. km, and the total water reserves accumulated from swampy watersheds are about 47 million cubic meters. m.
UNESCO reserve
Assessing the role and importance of the Great Vasyugan Swamp as a complex and multifunctional ecosystem, and taking into account its uniqueness and significance, as well as the increasing scale of anthropogenic impacts, we have to recognize the urgent problem of its protection. However, for a long time, the Vasyugan swamps were not even included in the preliminary lists of objects that need to be given the status of specially protected.
In 2006 year. The administration of the Tomsk region has created a complex reserve "Vasyugansky". Currently, it is planned to give it the status of a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. The Vasyugansky reserve implies a ban on hunting and logging. Although this will put a significant part of the local population out of work, many of whom are professional hunters, the administration of the reserve hopes to recruit former hunters as gamekeepers to fight poaching.
As a first step in environmental and practical actions, it is necessary to form a state interregional complex reserve of federal significance in most of the Great Vasyugan swamp, including border forest-bog complexes.
A separate item in the program for the protection of the Vasyugan swamp should be the program for reforming the Russian rocket and space industry, which provides for the abandonment of the use of heptyl and nitrogen tetroxide as rocket fuel and oxidizer, as well as the transfer of the main rocket launch pad from Baikonur to the Vostochny cosmodrome under construction in the Amur Region.
From the foregoing, it becomes quite clear that the Vasyugan swamp massif is not only a unique natural phenomenon in Western Siberia, but also acts as such for Russia and the world.
The geo-ecological functions performed by it are irreplaceable and irreplaceable, therefore the only way to preserve this natural heritage can be the creation of a biosphere reserve within its boundaries. Given the high cost of implementing such a project, its solution is possible at least in stages: at the first stage, these are various kinds of economic restrictions, at the second stage, the creation of the Vasyugan reserve is possible, and, finally, its transformation into a biosphere reserve.
This unique Russian territory is worth a whole cycle of materials and galleries of wonderful photographs.
However, there is practically no material on the web for both reading and viewing. If we are looking for places in Russia that can be called real miracles, then the Great Vasyugan Marshes should take one of the most worthy places on this list.
picking cranberries
picking cranberries
Now the fauna and flora of the swamps is under threat due to the development of the territory during the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas fields. The falling second stages of launch vehicles launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which pollute the territory with heptyl residues, also pose an environmental hazard.
The vast territories captured by swamps do not at all mean that their entire area is a continuous quagmire and mud. Yes, there are many bogs and moving to many places in a number of months of the year is deadly. But where there are no bogs, Vasyugan swamps, due to high humidity and mild climate, can amaze the most biased connoisseur with natural beauties.
Vasyugan swamps are often called the "Russian Amazon", comparing this vast and wild area with the famous wet jungles of South America.
But a trip to a part of Western Siberia that is practically untouched by man - Vasyuganye, as it is called, can surpass any jungle in its extremeness, becoming a real adventure on the verge of survival in an unknown land.
Swamps are a huge unsolved secret treasury that gives and reveals information about past times and landscapes, and helps to comprehend historical secrets.
Often they keep the tools of labor and wars of bygone times buried in them, and even the remains of people in almost perfect condition. Swamp moss sphagnum and its decomposition products, due to the special microflora and specific chemical reactions, make the human body incorruptible.
Among the Vasyugan swamps, about a hundred abandoned villages are lost, the entire population of which is only ghosts. And among the peat - and gas producers there are many terrible stories about anomalous phenomena occurring in the swamps.
Visiting the Vasyugan swamps is quite dangerous and requires special training and experience in moving through such places.
In the center of the Siberian Federal District, between the Ob and Irtysh rivers, there is the Vasyugan Swamp, the largest in Russia and the world. Most of this unique natural area is located on the territory of the Tomsk region, including the Novosibirsk, Omsk regions and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. The area of this swamp is the largest in the world and is about 53-55 thousand square meters. km, which exceeds the size of such European countries as Switzerland, Denmark or Estonia. The size of the swamp in length is approximately 570 by 320 km., it is truly huge, you can see it on the map.
According to scientists, swamping of the area began about 10,000 years ago ago and continues to this day - over the past 500 years, the swamp has quadrupled. Local legends speak of the ancient Vasyugan Sea-Lake, but geologists say that the Great Vasyugan Swamp did not occur through the overgrowth of ancient lakes, but as a result of the advance of swamps on land under the influence of a humid climate and favorable orographic conditions. Initially, on the site of the current single swamp massif, there were 19 separate plots with a total area of 45,000 square meters. km, but gradually the quagmire swallowed up the surroundings, like the onset of desert sands.
Today, this region is still a classic example of active, "aggressive" swamp formation: the interesting fact is that the swamps continue to grow, increasing on average by 800 hectares per year. There are more than 800 thousand lakes here, many rivers and streams originate, and the moisture evaporated from the surface maintains the climate balance and is carried even to the territory of Eastern Siberia and Kazakhstan. The climate in the area of the Vasyugan swamp is continental and humid. The average temperature in January is -20 °C, in July +17 °C. Snow cover 40–80 cm high lies from October to April on average 175 days a year.
Flora and fauna
Wetlands are the last refuge for many rare and endangered species of animals and birds driven from habitats transformed by humans, and the basis for maintaining the traditional nature management of small peoples, in particular, the indigenous inhabitants of Western Siberia. Among the plants of swamps and lakes, various medicinal herbs, as well as berries, which are found in abundance in swamps, are of primary value: cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, etc.
Vasyugan swamps consider their home to a variety of insects, animals, fish, birds. During the migration period, waterfowl and waders stop to rest on them. According to the Institute of Animal Ecology and Systematics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, up to 60% of the total number of ducks fly in the period of spring migration with a diffuse front through swamp systems, and only 40% - along the valleys of large rivers. Godwit and curlew, various birds of prey, including the peregrine falcon, nest in the marshes. It was on the Vasyugan plain that the thin-billed curlew was last seen, which is considered to be an almost extinct species of birds.
In places where swamps border forests and rivers and lakes lie, elks, minks, sables, otters are found, hazel grouses and wood grouses are found. Until the mid-80s of the last century, reindeer were found in the swamps, but today their population has practically disappeared.
In the tributaries of the rivers originating from the Great Vasyugan swamp, there are about 20 species of fish. In recent years, bream, pike perch, carp, and verkhovka have become common in local reservoirs. Vulnerable and rare species of fish in the area are nelma, peled, lamprey, and ruff.
Vasyugan swamp are the main source of fresh water in the region (water reserves up to 400 km³), this is the region where there are huge reserves of peat. Explored reserves are more than 1 billion tons (2% of the world), the average depth is 2.4 m, the maximum is 10 m. The most important function of the swamp is to purify the atmosphere, for which it is called a giant natural filter. Peat swamps of Siberia absorb toxic substances, bind carbon and thus prevent the greenhouse effect by saturating the air with oxygen.
The deserted Vasyugan moss peat bogs are a "geographical trend" in the north of the Tomsk region, which in the old days was called the Narym Territory. Historically, these were places of exile for political prisoners. The first Russian settlers founded the Tyumen (1586), Narym (1596) and Tomsk (1604) prisons shortly after the completion of Yermak's military expedition (1582–1585), which marked the beginning of the conquest of the Siberian Khanate in 1607. Judging by the documents found in peat bogs, by 1720 in the Narym Territory, the newly arrived population lived in 12 settlements. Since 1835, a systematic settlement of exiles began (a new influx of exiles came to Vasyugan in the 1930s–1950s), it was mainly due to them that the local population increased.
black gold
Later, the more active development of Western Siberia was facilitated by the landlessness of the peasants of the central provinces as a result of the reforms of 1861, and especially the Stolypin agrarian reform of 1906. In 1949, oil was found in the western part of the swamp, Kargasoksky district was nicknamed the “oil Klondike”, by the beginning of the 1970s more than 30 oil and gas fields had already been discovered in Vasyugansky (Pionerny) and Luginetsky (Pudino) regions. In 1970, the construction of the Aleksandrovskoye–Tomsk–Anzhero-Sudzhensk oil pipeline was started, and in 1976, the construction of the Nizhnevartovsk–Parabel–Kuzbass gas pipeline.
Ecology of the Vasyugan swamp
Despite the almost complete absence of settlements in the area of the Vasyugan swamps, with the development of civilization, a variety of factors began to have a negative impact on a unique natural object. Peat extraction violates the natural landscape of the Vasyugan Plain, there are negative consequences of draining the swamps and poaching lead to the destruction of unique flora and fauna. Heavy tracked vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, construction and drilling activities, oil spills and the use of water in drilling processes are damaging the swamp ecosystem.
Industrial runoff constantly gets into the rivers, tourists leave garbage behind. Also, the second stages of rockets are a big problem. launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome: falling into the swamps, they pollute them with the remnants of highly toxic rocket fuel - heptyl. Analysis of samples of water, soil and plants from raised bogs collected in contaminated areas showed that the content of heptyl in some of them is 5 times higher than the MPC.
Swamp fires
However, the most dangerous and most frequently repeated anthropogenic impact on the ecosystems of Vasyugan are those that destroy all natural complexes of swamps, including in winter. As a result, many intramarsh lakes of pyrogenic genesis appear, forest stands and many animals die. The growth of lakes reduces the flow of water from the already swampy forests.
In the 1920s, a seven-year fire in peat bogs on the territory of the modern Northern region of the Novosibirsk region led to the formation of the largest lake Tenis in the south of Western Siberia. Subsequently, its basin deepened in some places to 11–18 meters, the area of the water surface approached 19 square meters. km, and the total water reserves accumulated from swampy watersheds are about 47 million cubic meters. m.UNESCO reserve
Assessing the role and importance of the Great Vasyugan Swamp as a complex and multifunctional ecosystem, and taking into account its uniqueness and significance, as well as the increasing scale of anthropogenic impacts, we have to recognize the urgent problem of its protection. However, for a long time, the Vasyugan swamps were not even included in the preliminary lists of objects that need to be given the status of specially protected.
The situation got off the ground in 2006. The administration of the Tomsk region has created a complex reserve "Vasyugansky". Currently, it is planned to give it the status of a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. The Vasyugansky reserve implies a ban on hunting and logging. Although this will put a significant part of the local population out of work, many of whom are professional hunters, the administration of the reserve hopes to recruit former hunters as gamekeepers to fight poaching.
Possible Solutions
The creation of a specially protected natural area in the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh is of scientific interest from the point of view of monitoring and studying natural processes in the largest swampy region of the world. The purpose of their organization is to preserve the complex of swamp systems of the Great Vasyugan swamp and maintain the ecological balance in the region. This corresponds not only to the general goals of the conservation of biological diversity, the reasonable use of natural resources (vegetable, oil), but also to maintaining the balance of the ecosystems of the adjacent territories.
Opinions of scientists
According to scientists, the design of a large protected area - an ecological reserve - within the Vasyugan bog system will be very promising. It should be a single array, the basis of which can be the spaces of watershed swamps.
Within this zone, it is expedient to establish a series of scientific polygons similar to biospheric ones., since the allocation of only one specially protected area, even a very large area and quite representative of the features of the bog process and the structure of the bog landscapes of the region, would be a half measure that does not guarantee the safety of this entire territory as an ecologically valuable landscape system.
Educational institutions in Russia that conduct research in the field of environmental problems.
Environmental pollution in our country, see the review.
What is the policy of states aimed at solving global problems of the biosphere? Find out more at the link.
Territory development
The development of the western part of the Great Vasyugan Swamp by the oil industry cannot serve as a factor contributing to the reduction of the boundaries of the ecological reserve. These areas are of interest for organizing a system for tracking the course of natural processes under conditions of anthropogenic impact, and in practice - for monitoring the exploitation of oil fields. As a first step in environmental and practical actions, it is necessary to form a state interregional complex reserve of federal significance.
A separate item in the program for the protection of the Vasyugan swamp should be the program for reforming the Russian rocket and space industry, which provides for the abandonment of the use of heptyl and nitrogen tetroxide as rocket fuel and oxidizer, as well as the transfer of the main rocket launch pad from Baikonur to the Vostochny cosmodrome under construction in the Amur Region.From the foregoing, it becomes quite clear that the Vasyugan swamp massif is not only unique natural phenomenon of Western Siberia, but also acts as such for Russia and the world. The geo-ecological functions performed by it are irreplaceable and irreplaceable, therefore the only way to preserve this natural heritage can be the creation of a biosphere reserve within its boundaries. Given the high cost of implementing such a project, its solution is possible at least in stages: at the first stage, these are various kinds of economic restrictions, at the second stage, the creation of the Vasyugan reserve is possible, and, finally, its transformation into a biosphere reserve.
In the early to mid-20th century, large-scale drainage of swamps began around the world: vast territories were drained in Europe, Asia, North and South America for the needs of civilization. While in Russia, most of the swamps continued to grow under the cover of dense Siberian forests.
The debate over which swamp is the largest in the world continues to this day. An old Russian proverb immediately comes to mind: "Every devil praises his swamp." In fact, this is what happens: every scientist, every researcher tries to convince the others that it is his swamps that are the largest. But the thing is that it is rather difficult to measure the exact dimensions of the swamp: it is almost impossible to determine exactly where it begins and where it ends. But anyway, Big Vasyugan very similar to the same swamp, especially since it continues to grow.
The largest swamp massif on our planet is located in Siberia between the Ob and Irtysh rivers. According to the latest data, the total area of the Vasyugan swamp is 53,000 km², the length from north to south is 322 km, from west to east - 575 km. 53,000 km² is a very large area, surpassing a good half of the countries of the world.
The formation of the Vasyugan swamp massif began approximately 10,000 years ago, probably from the water reserves left after the Ice Age. But most of the swamp area was acquired relatively recently: 75% of the territories were swamped over the past 5 centuries. In other words, the Siberian swamps are growing in volume and this is good news, especially considering the environmental situation in the world.
Those who consider swamps to be a vile, fetid, disgusting place will be greatly disappointed when they see Big Vasyuganskoye. Wherever you look - around the water, water and lush vegetation. This is a real paradise for animals and plants, all conditions here contribute to their development and prosperity. In addition, for thousands of kilometers there is not a single settlement of a person who, voluntarily or inadvertently, could harm nature.
The swamp massif is the main source of fresh water in its region. Most of the Siberian rivers originate here, feeding on the incalculable water reserves of the Great Vasyugan. More than 800 thousand lakes of various sizes are located on the territory of the massif.
In addition to the role of a home for animals and plants, swamps also perform at least one more important function. Peat, which is usually so rich in swamps, largely counteracts the greenhouse effect by absorbing and sequestering carbon atoms. At the same time, vegetation, which is very abundant here, saturates the atmosphere with oxygen. Taking into account the size of the Great Vasyugan swamp, we come to the conclusion that it is one of the most powerful opponents of the greenhouse effect on our planet.
However, not everything is as good as it could be. The fact is that under the Vasyugan swamps there are almost the largest peat reserves in the world and very significant oil deposits. And as it usually happens: where there is money for making money, a person also appears. A network of mining and processing plants has already been deployed in the swamps. In this regard, the administration of the Tomsk region created a complex reserve "Vasyugansky". But, more importantly, not so long ago, they seriously started talking about giving the Great Vasyugan Swamp the status of a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.
The division of swamps into low-lying, high-moor, and transitional swamps by no means exhausts their infinite diversity.
Therefore, there are more fractional classifications. According to various characteristics, swamps are divided into a number of types. An illustrative example is the richest "collection" of marsh massifs of the West Siberian Plain. Bolotologists believe that in its open spaces you can see almost all types of swamps that are found in the northern hemisphere.
Let's look at the Siberian swamps from a height and, as it were, make an air trip over them. It will begin from the Far North, from the shores of the Kara Sea, and will end over the steppes of the Baraba lowland.
The West Siberian Plain resembles a trapezium in its outlines: its wide base looks to the south, narrow - to the north. It consists of two flat bowl-shaped depressions, between which the Siberian Uvals are spread in the latitudinal direction - low elevations up to 175-200 m in height. As a natural physical-geographic region, Western Siberia has very clear boundaries. In the west - the slopes of the Ural Mountains, in the north - the Kara Sea, in the east - the Yenisei valley and the cliffs of the Central Siberian Plateau. In the south, natural boundaries are less pronounced. The edge of the plain, gradually rising, passes into the Turgai plateau and the Kazakh hills.
This region is very rich in large and small rivers, but its most characteristic feature is the abundance of swamps.
According to the conditions of occurrence, development, quality and quantity of peat deposits, vegetation and other features, they differ greatly from each other. These differences are closely related to the natural latitudinal zonality and reveal a fairly clear pattern.
... Among the boundless green silence of the swamps, you feel like a grain of sand in the ocean. There is a feeling of abandonment, isolation from everything earthly. As if all ties with the familiar world are torn. Somewhere in the distance - the horizon line, and around - swamps, swamps without end and edges, riddled with rivers, interspersed with lakes, in some places with islands of forest vegetation.
The swamps are very beautiful. Like a huge motley carpet, juicy, golden red with green and brown spots. It is not uncommon and a gradual, smooth transition to dark brown tones. Against this background are interspersed countless blue lakes and lakes of the most bizarre shape, sometimes large, whose area reaches tens and even hundreds of square kilometers, sometimes just a few meters. The blue of lakes with pairs of white swans and flocks of ducks, hummocks covered with cranberries in such abundance that their surface seems red, amber fields of ripe cloudberries, dew drops sparkling with diamonds on the cilia of sundew ... For a swamp explorer, there are no more attractive and more beautiful landscapes on earth.
So, let's start the journey on the plane tested by the AN-2, from which everything is perfectly visible. Below us is a zone of arctic swamps. To the north of the Arctic Circle, swampy expanses of the tundra stretch for many kilometers. From the height of our flight, areas similar to the polygons of giant honeycombs are clearly visible. As if an unknown land surveyor, for some unknown reason, drew the land into plots - polygons of almost regular shape. This peculiar type of polygonal swamps is very characteristic of the tundra. The sizes of "honeycombs" are different - from five to twenty meters in diameter. In winter, snow is blown away from the surface of the swamps by the wind, and during severe frosts they are covered with deep cracks up to 80 cm deep. They are bordered by convex rollers with a layer of peat, formed during uneven freezing, thawing of permafrost and swelling of the soil. Rolls impede runoff, and much of the landfill is permanently waterlogged. The accumulation of peat in such swamps is small, but it is truly of great importance: peat is abundantly covered with lichens (the famous reindeer moss is the food base for reindeer breeding), as well as shrubs and mosses.
On the shores of the Kara Sea, there are also coastal swamps flooded with sea water during surge winds. Occasionally, along the river valleys, there are islands of stunted larch forest and willow. The strong swamping of the tundra can be explained by three main reasons: the already mentioned location of the frozen layer close to the surface, which prevents the penetration of water into the depths, the flatness of the territory, and the fact that the amount of precipitation here exceeds evaporation.
To the south of the polygonal swamps, a zone of flat-hilly swamps begins. The mosaic landscape is composed of low (no more than two meters) mounds, separated by flooded depressions - hollows. The area of some elevations can reach several tens and even hundreds of meters. Permafrost forms a continuous shell here. The tops of the hills are covered with lichen, the slopes are covered with mosses. There are few flowering plants, they are oppressed and stunted. In hollows there is a carpet of hypnum or sphagnum mosses.
In the north of Western Siberia, frozen peatlands extend approximately to the 64th parallel. Further south, between 64 and 62 degrees north latitude, permafrost occupies only isolated areas. This is mainly a zone of large-hilly swamps. The hillocks also alternate with hollows, but the sizes of both are much larger: the hillocks are up to eight meters high. Similar to the ancient Scythian mounds, whitish-gray from the lichens covering them, they create a unique original landscape. Both types of swamps often coexist. Large-hilly usually gravitate towards river valleys, old channels, and flat-hilly are located on watersheds. It is difficult to draw a clear line between them.
Hollows are covered with moistened sedge communities or, again, moss cover. Sometimes the vegetation is poorly developed, and bare peat is visible. During the summer, the peat thaws to the bottom and then the swamps become completely impassable. It is difficult to get through only where there are bumps or small elevations among the hollows.
As the mounds grow, the winter winds blow them more and more violently; the peaks are completely freed from snow and even resistant northern plants die on them. Exposed patches of peat under the influence of frosty weathering are covered with cracks, which give shelter to the oppressed, but stubbornly surviving arctic shrubs, dwarf birch, crowberry, wild rosemary, marsh myrtle. They live much better on the leeward slopes of hillocks. At the foot, they even form dense thickets, which are often dominated by dwarf birch.
They tried to dig up mounds in the swamps: it was interesting to find out what was inside. Under a layer of peat, which serves as an excellent insulator, permafrost is well preserved, and in it, as in a shell, lies a core of sand and loam, also reliably soldered by ice like cement and penetrated by numerous ice layers.
A variety of assumptions have been made about the origin of the hillocks. As a result, uneven freezing of the soil began to be considered the main reason. It leads to swelling of the soil, then the work of water and wind joins. As a result, such a peculiar relief gradually arises.
We are moving further south. Behind the Siberian ridges are convex raised bogs. There are a huge number of them. In fact, they occupy about half of the entire plain. The northern taiga is dominated by the so-called sphagnum lake-ridge-hollow bogs. This is really a natural combination of ridges, hollows and lakes. The plants on them are typically oligotrophic, adapted to life on soils that are extremely poor in nutrients. The accumulation of peat is quite intensive, its deposits reach a thickness of 2 meters.
As you move to the southern taiga among the swamps, there are fewer and fewer lakes, until they disappear altogether. Bogs become ridge-hollow, often alternating with pine-shrub-sphagnum. Nature has created here optimal conditions for the accumulation of peat. Its average thickness is 3-4 m, and in some massifs peat occurs to a depth of 10-12 m.
Here we are in the south of the West Siberian Plain. The southern taiga is gradually giving way to small-leaved, aspen-birch forests. The shape of the swamps is also changing. Most of them are flat, low-lying, with an abundance of sedges and green mosses. Raised pine-shrub-sphagnum bogs occur in the form of islets. Woody vegetation also occupies low ridges stretching over the surface of the bog. Herbaceous vegetation is quite diverse. Sedges, watch, cinquefoil, poisonous milestone, green mosses cover the surface of the swamp with a lush green carpet.
There are also swamps on the southernmost edge of Western Siberia, although this is a kind of paradox - a zone of insufficient moisture begins here. Of course, the nature of the swamps is different, they are often grassy - with a predominance of reeds or sedges. Wide swampy strips stretch along river valleys, occupy interfluves, to the south they capture lake basins, oxbow lakes and other depressions where close groundwater creates constant local waterlogging of the upper soil layers.
Grassy swamps (they are often called zayishchimi) sometimes stretch without interruption for tens of kilometers. The wind sways the grass, and green waves roll over the surface of the swamp. In general, this is called the Baraba steppe, although over a quarter of its territory is occupied by swamps. Loans are spread widely between the Ishim and Tobol rivers, especially in their middle reaches. Swampy grassy spaces surround the lake with a wide ring, descend into lowlands and old channels. There is also the formation of peat. The deposits reach 1.5 meters in thickness.
The vegetation of the borrowings is peculiar. Their natives are reed, reed grass, reed, various sedges. They belong to salt-tolerant plants. Reed growing along the edges and even outside the swamps, in the zone of variable moisture, serves as a geobotanical indicator of mixed chloride-sulphate salinization. In general, there are a lot of salts in the soils of Baraba, especially in non-marshy areas, where there are favorable conditions for capillary rise to the surface of saline groundwater. Salt spots are common in such places. Some dirt roads in the Baraba steppe turn completely white from salt and in summer they make a strange impression: they seem to be covered with non-melting snow.
Another curious feature: often small areas of raised bogs, the so-called ryams, are interspersed in the loans. Their vegetation does not tolerate salinity at all and can only exist if it is completely isolated from the rest of the swamp due to the solid layer of peat underlying the rows. The convex surface of the ryams with asymmetrical slopes usually rises above the grass cover of the site. Pine trees grow on them, sphagnum and marsh shrubs are common at their roots. The area of ryams ranges from 4-5 to several hundred hectares. How do ryams appear among the saline soils of the West Siberian forest-steppe? The answer is pretty simple. In the forest-steppe, with strong winds, the snow cover is blown away from open spaces, the peat deposit freezes, and salts are redistributed. A layer of fresh ice forms on top. This process is repeated many times, and with intense freezing, desalination of individual, most watered central sections of the marshes occurs. Then sphagnum mosses and other plants of raised bogs settle on them. The ages of the rims are different. They arose during the entire Holocene (post-glacial time), and are formed now.
Western Siberia is an extensive storehouse of minerals. In addition to peat, deposits of coal and iron ores are known, but the main value lies in oil and gas reserves. This region is rich in forests, fish, fur-bearing animals, mushrooms, and berries. For the successful economic development of such a swampy region, it is necessary to know as much as possible about the swamps, to fully restore the history of their formation and the dynamics of development at the present time.
With the help of modern research methods, it is not so difficult to travel back thousands of years in order to find out in detail how and when swamps arose.
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Vadim Andrianov / wikipedia.org
Vasyugan swamps are one of the largest on Earth. They are located between the Ob and Irtysh rivers, on the Vasyugan plain, within the borders of the Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions.
Vasyugan swamps are a very interesting natural phenomenon, which is distinguished by a variety of landscapes. In 2007 they were included in the preliminary list of UNESCO heritage sites in Russia.
Vasyugan swamps are located in places where small-leaved forests pass into the southern taiga. Their area is approximately 53,000 sq. km, which exceeds the territory of some European countries. This is approximately two percent of the total area of all peat bogs on Earth.
Vasyugan swamps were formed about ten thousand years ago and since then their territory has been constantly growing. They stretch about 570 km from west to east and more than 300 km from north to south.
Especially rapidly swamping of the area has been occurring recently, for example, in the last five hundred years alone, the area occupied by swamps has increased by about 75%.
During the warm period of the year, the Vasyugan swamps are almost completely impassable for any equipment.
The movement of geological parties and cargo transportation to developing oil fields is carried out only in winter.
Flora and fauna of the Vasyugan swamps
The Great Vasyugan Swamp is home to many animals, some of which are rare. Of the mammals, elk, bear, sable, squirrel, otter, wolverine and others are found here. Until recently, reindeer could be found, but today, most likely, its population has completely disappeared. Of the birds, there are hazel grouse, black grouse, curlews, golden eagle, peregrine falcon, etc.
Medicinal herbs and berries grow here from plants, blueberries, cloudberries and cranberries are especially numerous.
Significance of swamps
Vasyugan swamps are of great ecological importance for the entire region, and also perform a number of biospheric functions. They represent a natural reserve for various marsh landscapes and the flora and fauna living in them.
The total water reserves are approximately 400 cubic kilometers, which makes them an important reservoir of fresh water. There are numerous small lakes here. In the Vasyugan swamps are the sources of the rivers Vasyugan, Tara, Om, Parabig, Chizhapka, Ui and some others.
The large Vasyugan swamp contains a significant amount of peat. Only its explored reserves exceed a billion tons. Peat on average lies at a depth of about 2.5 meters. Peat bogs sequester carbon, thereby reducing its content in the atmosphere and reducing the greenhouse effect. In addition, marsh vegetation produces oxygen.
Environmental problems
Although there are almost no settlements in the Vasyugan swamps and economic activity is minimal here, people still harm the unique and rather fragile ecosystem.
Among the environmental problems of the region, one can note deforestation, peat extraction, development of oil fields, poaching, etc. The development of local deposits is associated with a negative impact on soils of all-terrain vehicles, oil spills and other adverse factors.
A serious problem is created by the second stages of rockets falling here, which are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. These steps pollute the area with heptyl, which has a strong toxic effect.
Until recently, almost no attempts were made to protect this unique natural landscape. Only in 2006, in the east of the Vasyugan swamps, the Vasyugansky complex reserve was created, the territory of which totals 5090 square meters. km.
In 2007 they were included in the preliminary list of heritage sites in Russia. It is understood that the nominated object will include the territory of the existing reserve. There is a question of giving at least part of the Vasyugan swamps the status of a reserve, which would practically exclude any economic activity here.
How to get there?
The Great Vasyugan Swamp is distinguished by its extreme inaccessibility. Some villages lying on the outskirts can still be reached by off-road vehicle, however, the further path will have to be overcome, most likely, only on foot.
A tracked all-terrain vehicle is possible, but its use is quite limited due to swamps. There is also an opportunity to view the swamps from the air - some Tomsk travel agencies organize helicopter tours.
Visiting the Vasyugan swamps is quite dangerous and requires some preparation and experience in moving through such places. There are numerous swamps here, a huge number of bears are found.