#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Specialists have compiled an annual brief report on the Putorana nature reserve’s flora inventory work. These studies have been ongoing for ten years.
“Why flora? It would seem that the main object of attention in nature conservation areas is animals and birds. But it is plants that ensure the stability of ecosystems, especially vulnerable and fragile ecosystems of the North. The higher the plants’ diversity, the more stable the fauna diversity”, noted Igor and Elena Pospelov, leading researcher and chief researcher of the Taimyr Nature Reserves directorate.
They refute the opinion about the poverty and monotony of the Arctic flora. North of the Arctic Circle, in the territory of Taimyr and part of Evenkia, the growth of 996 species of higher vascular plants alone, not counting mosses and lichens, has been reliably confirmed, of which 804 are for the Putorana plateau. At the same time, according to experts, there was not a single field season when new species not previously encountered in this territory were not added to the floristic collection.
The florists’ work is to cover the entire diversity of biotopes – mountainous and flat areas, reservoirs, meadows and swamps, rocks and screes, all types of forests. All encountered plant species are noted on them. For a more accurate identification of many species, a herbarium is collected, they are photographed in nature, the exact location of the collections is recorded using a GPS tracker. Thus, in July-August, 300 kilometers of boat routes and 200 kilometers of hiking routes were covered in the vicinity of lake Sobachye, 830 herbarium sheets were collected for subsequent identification in laboratory conditions.
“Based on the results of this year’s work, we have recorded the growth of two species that are new to the Putorana plateau and the Taimyr region as a whole – this is the Calypso bulbosa orchid, listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, its closest location is the mouth of the Lower Tunguska river, as well as Potentilla trifoliate, which has not been noted until now north of the Podkamennaya Tunguska. For the Putorana plateau, the woolly lousewort and the crested dryas, which we found earlier, were more common in the east of Taimyr and the Anabar plateau. For the reserve and its protected area, Middendorf oxytropis and oxytropis filthii, and dock false saline have been recorded for the first time. All of them were found singly in the vicinity of Norilsk and Talnah, as well as 18 species that had not previously been recorded in the reserve, but only in its protected area, for example, pondweed glabra and pondweed Berchtold, the Red Book sedge Mackenzie (Red Book of Krasnoyarsk region), Pennell lousewort and others”, the experts said.
The end result of the botanists’ annual work is the compilation of an annotated list of plants indicating their growth in certain biotopes, their occurrence and activity. Herbarium collections are transferred to the leading Herbariums of Russia, photographs are published on the iNaturalist portal. This allows the territory of Taimyr to be ‘visible’ to all botany enthusiasts around the globe.
Earlier, This Is Taimyr reported that Putorana snow sheep are planned to be chipped.
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Text: Tatyana Gulieva, Photo: Taimyr Nature Reserves directorate