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GEF Project

According to the modern botanic geographical demarcation the territory of the Barguzin reserve belongs the conditionally charged region as “Nagorye Baikal”. The North Eastern cost line of Lake Baikal is an arena of mutual penetration of different botanic and geographical complexes. The vegetation of the Barguzin ridge was formed on the joints of different botanic and geographical areas where the dark coniferous taiga communities of a Sayan type compete to the East Siberia larch forests and Betula ermanii lanata V. forests of an Okhotsk type. It explains the complexity of the floristic composition of all plant groups of the reservation.

In terms of botanic, the North - Eastern Baikal region is not studied enough, especially it concerns the inferior plants. On the territory of the reservation 212 species of lichen were detached among which the most spread are representatives of Cladonia genus which includes 32 species.

14 species of epiphyte Paramelia lichen are marked. Such species as Peltigera and Zetraria (12- 9 species) are rather wide-spread. The list of glues includes 147 species and will be completed.

Wood glues prevail. Then come the upper level species of the wood vegetation. The goltsis glues and those which can be found on the Alpine belt and the Baikal cost line stand the last. In the reservation there marked 171 species of mushrooms, 1200 species of alga, the list of vascular plants includes 874 species.

Among precinctive plants we should distinguish Astragalus trigonocarpus Bunge, Poa smirnovii Roshev., Craniospermum subvillosum Lehm. The most typical for the reserve are Botrychium lanceolatum Gm.,Galium trifolium L., Thelypteris palustris Schott, Ophioglossum vulgatum L. which belong to the relict species preserved since the ice age.

On the territory of the North Eastern region of Baikal there are many rare species requiring special preservation, e.g. Calypso bulbosa L., Cypripedium guttatum Sw., Cypripedium macranthon Sw., Cypripedium calceolus L., Platanthera bifolia L., Epipactis helleborine Cr., Epipogium aphyllum F. W. Schm., Iris humilis Geotg. and Iris laevigata F. et M., Rhodiola rosea L., Phododendron redowskianum Max. and others. The environs of thermal springs are rich in rare species.

Among 214 species of plants which can be found near hot springs 55 are considered to be rare for the reservation and 30 species can be found only in the region of thermal waters.

Vertical distribution of vegetation on the Western slopes of the Barguzin ridge is quite variable. So it is possible to distinguish a wet Baikal belt of vegetation.

The distribution of under goltsis vegetation on the shore of Baikal is typical for this region. This, so- called “false belt” is shown by the tangle cedar dwarf and larch forests with wild rosemary, fox berry and other under shrubs.

The forest belt can be subdivided into 3 subbelts. The lowest is of the fallacious and cedar dwarf light forests. It is affected mostly by the cool influence of Baikal. The medium subbelt is of the dark and light coniferous forests , in the lower layer the cedar forests prevail and in the upper layer fir-forests are dominant.

The lawer layer of the subalpine belt is the upper bound of the forest. It is presented by the fir and birch forests, spruce brove and light forests with Siberian spruce and Betula ermanii lanata V. alternating with cedar dwarf , birch dwarf and gravel mines. On the upper region of the subalpine belt gravel mines with a dense cedar dwarf, a golden rhododendron, alpine and subalpine meadows and waste grounds dominate.

The Alpine belt represents a combination of rocks, gravel mines, and waste ground with meadows, a sparse cedar dwarf and a golden rhododendron.

The flora of the on-soil and epiphytic lichen is rich in the sparse larch growths. Lichens are also numerous in the lower layer of the mountain forest belt.

The rapid development of the glue- lichen cover gives the cost-line taiga a severe, gloomy view. Larch and cedar twigs are overgrown with black, green and grey lichen. From the crowns of the young spruces and firs disheveled threads and rows of lichen are hanging. Lichens cover the ground, wind-fallen wood, twigs and trunks of the bushes.

Among the sphagnum larch forests, larch broves with a bush layer of a thin birch can be found. In majority of forests of a larch type on the second layer a cedar can be found. A plain pine can be seen more frequently in the forests of a dry type. Sometimes the second layer includes a birch and a firtree.

A moist Baikal type of the belt is more clearly shown in the valley of the Shoomiliha River and on the cost line of Baikal. At the southern borderline of the reservation the axis of the Barguzin ridge approaches close to the lake. The slopes run down to the water, even parts are lacking. It is the moistest part of the north - eastern costline having a number of peculiarities in the distribution of vegetation. Here on the slopes of different expositions from the Baikal level up to goltsis, dark forests dominate especially cedar and fir. They are mixed with the light forests, which seems to be like spots in the lower layer of the wood belt. As a result their occurrence is connected with a rock transformation under forest fires.

In the North and especially in the central part of the reserve where the main watershed of the Barguzin ridge recedes from lake Baikal on a big distance and among the major forms of relief plants cover large places, the scheme of the vertical distribution of vegetation has a number of peculiar features.

Here the false under goltsis belt is not vividly shown. Light coniferous forests stretch on the on the plains and slopping hills up to 20 km and rather deep into the territory.

Inspite of the fact that a larch is better adapted to the severe conditions of the mountains than other coniferous types of trees it doesn’t stretch deep into the mountains and the upper forest bound. In the South of the reservation it dominates only in the lowest layer of slopes up to 100m above sea level ( ASL).

The subbelt of dark coniferous forests covers the territory approximately from 600 up to 900 m ASL. Its peculiarity is that dark coniferous cedar forests alternating with a fir cover the northern slopes. On the well warmed southern and western slopes pine broves dominate. The larch on these areas is of mixed type. A large diversity of trees exists depending on the relief , exposition , slopeness, soil dampness.

In grass and bush cover a bilberry, foxberry, northern linnea, Miaianthemum bifolium L. Ortilia secunda (L.) House, Pyrola incarnata Fr., Lycopodium juniperoideum Sw. and Lycopodium dubium Zoega, Dryopterises can be found. On the rocky ground a bergelia grows.

Glue – lichen cover includes variety of green gluees , cladonia, and other lichens.

The most abrupt and dry slopes of the southern expositions are the primary and steady habitats for the pine forests.

Cedar and cedar mixed with fir forests in the reservation are widely spread on the moraine and ancient alluvial deposits in the valleys of rivers and also on slopes of the mountain and forest upper region.

On terraces of the river valleys are quite often covered with spruce broves and fir forests. The spruce forests are non of a large number.

Among the birch forests which occurred in the reservation as a result of fires like the aspen broves, a bergenia birch is highly spread. Under their curtain the undergrowth of coniferous types a spruce, cedar and fir are being formed.

The forests in the valleys of the rivers are of a great variety.

The low valley river (poima) parts are occupied with the poplar -chosenia forests. In the valleys of rivers poima is not quite developed and represents a narrow strip directly near the shore foothills.

The Birch and fir forests with a billberry, bergenia, glue and lichen cover can be found. In a quite low cover is formed by a bilberry and bergenia, ear fragrant, Ilyin’s sedge, golden розга. The on soil cover is not abundant.

In the subalpine region large areas are covered with shrubs.

The impenetrable growths of the cedar dwarf dominate on the rocky regions.

The dwarf creates a layer in the light forests. Its dense growths can also be found on the gravel mines.

The soil and climatic conditions of the alpine region are rather favorable for a dwarf. Its communities cover vast areas.

Unlike a number of mountain chains of the Eastern Siberia for the Barguzin ridge high mountain meadows are most typical.

The Alpine meadows stretch on the mountain slopes above the forest bound. They have the low cover of different grasses and cereals with very colourful seasonal aspects.

On the upper belts of the Barguzin ridge the unique vegetative communities called a waste ground (pustosh) are widely spread. It exists under short water supply.

On the Nortern and Southen plateaus of the Barguzin ridge the vegetation of a tundra type is well developed. Wet glue tundras are shown separately and fragmentary. Lichen mountain tundras typical for the middle part of the ridge are widely spread. They are more developed on the terrace like benches on the slopes, on the elevated parts in the bottom of the valley and as a rule on the slopes on the Southern exposition. The soil layer is rather poor and mostly skeletal.