Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2020 number 4

Data of a comprehensive investigation (2014-2018) within the Rel’ river basin (northwestern coast of Lake Baikal) are presented. Pollution and transformation of the main components of landscapes in the study area were identified, which are caused by natural and anthropogenic factors. It is established that pollution of the surface and snow waters of the Rel’ is due to high concentrations of phosphates and ammonium. The soils of taiga landscapes have a low resistant to anthropogenic impact, whereas the soils of steppificated landscapes have a higher degree of resistance to environmental changes. In transitional natural zones, sometimes the soils show the imprints of the precious ecological conditions for their formation, and often they do not correspond to modern vegetation. Reforestation of the extrazonal steppe as observed over the last several decades indicates change in natural and climatic conditions in the region. It should be noted that the climate dynamics, largely regarding the seasonal redistribution of precipitation, promotes the development of polydominant taiga replacing the extrazonal steppes, probably with conservation of xerophytic-petrophytic vegetation groups on southwestern steep eroded slopes and along stony ridges. Reforestation of territories occupied by extrazonal steppe should be treated as the manifestation of environmental conditions: topography and temperature and humidity dynamics in growing periods and years. Topography and climate are the main factors determining the spatial-dynamic organization and transformation of vegetation and soil cover across the study territory and in the region as a whole.