Far North. Natural conditions. Flora and fauna

The Far North is a marginal northern part of the territory of the former USSR, which is mainly located in the Arctic. A number of remote areas are covered by benefits, which are established for cooperative, state and public companies of this region.

Natural conditions of the Far North

The land area is about 2.2 million square kilometers.

Key Features:
- the radiation balance has low values;
- the average temperature in the summer months is close to 0 ° C (given that the average annual temperature is negative);
- Permafrost and glaciers with a capacity of up to 500 meters are widespread;
- there is a small layer of seasonal thawing (no more than seventy centimeters).

The Far North of Russia includes the following zones: forest-tundra, tundra, part of taiga and arctic deserts. Within the land, with the exception of small streams, there are estuaries of fairly large rivers - Ob, Pyasina, Pechora, Yenisei, Lena, Khatanga, Indigirka, Anabara, Yana and Kolyma. Almost all of them in their lower reaches flow in wide valleys. Khatanga, Yenisei and Ob at the mouths form extensive bays - "lips." The rivers have a destructive effect on the state of permafrost. They push it away from the valley and gradually destroy it with its channel. In addition, they have a mitigating effect on the climate of nearby areas. The results of the impact of river waters are found in the seas at a distance of two to three hundred kilometers from the mouth, affecting the ice and hydrological regime of the seas. For nine to ten months in a year, the rivers freeze, some to the bottom. On the mainland they melt in May-June, and in October they freeze. On the islands in July - September.

Within the territories of the mainland tundra and on some islands there is a large number of lakes. For most of the year they are under ice. The largest lake in the Far North is Taimyr. It is located on the peninsula of the same name. The Far North is distinguished by developed Arctic soils that have a close to neutral or weakly acid reaction. There are no restoration processes (or gleying). Tundra soils predominate in the tundra zone. The surface of the continent of the Far North forms low-lying margins of the West Siberian and East European plains: Kolyma, Yano-Indigirskaya and Severo-Siberian lowlands. In some areas there are mountains. The highest and most significant of them are the northern part of the Verkhoyansk Range, the Byrranga Mountain near Lake Taimyr and the mountains of the Chukchi Peninsula. Complexes of the Paleozoic, Precambrian and Mesozoic-Cenozoic deposits, as well as the formation of a magmatic type of various composition, take part in the structure of the continent, the islands and the adjacent shelf.

Plants and animals of the Far North

The Far North is distinguished by a diverse flora and fauna. However, the majority of representatives refers to the inhabitants of sea waters. Small forms are plankton, serving as food for larger organisms.

Plants of the Far North: fir, birch, alder, mountain ash, dwarf birch, willow; Blueberry, cloudberry, cowberry, blueberry, prince, siksha; About 55 species of mushrooms; Bathing-houses, yellow buttercups, mother-and-stepmother, dandelions, forget-me-nots, purple castile, gentian dark blue, cotton grass, cyanosis; More than one hundred kinds of lichens.

What animals inhabit the Far North? These are reindeer, wolf, rabbits, arctic fox, wolverine, elk, marten, brown bear, ferret, lemminka; Geese, seagulls, ducks, snipe, waders, turuhans, loons, fifi, klikun, small swan, osprey, red-throated diver, white-tailed eagle, gray crane, jack-eagle, peregrine, golden eagle, dupel, gyrfalcon; Plankton, worms, crustaceans, mollusks, fish (the most common is saika), walruses.