Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2023 number 5S

One of the priority areas of joint research of the Dzherginsky Nature Reserve and V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS is thematic geoinformation mapping of ecosystem components, with the aim of optimizing the accumulated information and planning scientific, recreational and environmental activities. The development of the methodology for compiling maps and legends, the introduction of geographic information systems and computer data processing significantly expand the modern possibilities of zoological mapping. The paper discusses the experience of compiling a zoological map of the population of mammals in the Amut Depression, made at a scale of 1:50 000, based on a previously compiled map of the vegetation of the depression and using Landsat 5 TM and 7 ETM+ images, forest inventory plans, and landscape and topographic maps of different scales. The territory is characterized by a relatively low species diversity of mammals, which is associated with rather severe natural and climatic conditions of their habitat. The collected and generalized information on the distribution of 26 species of mammals in the Amut Depression served as the basis for compiling a large-scale map including 58 sections in the main layer, reflecting the patterns of spatial organization of the animal population, represented by five types and three subtypes. The initial mapping units were the population of mammals, taken within the boundaries of plant associations; it was this unit of vegetation cover that was the first to be used by V.B. Sochava. The generalization of disparate data by creating a map of the population of mammals makes it possible to visualize the structure and distribution of various types of population as well as to identify the general patterns of their formation over a vast territory.