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Scientific Work – Researches |
From 1935 to 1937 the research on the “Ecology of the Barguzin Sable” was done by V.K. Timofeyev. In the end of the 30-s the zoologists I.N. Korneyev and N.G. Kolov made the inventory of the vertebrates’ fauna and did the considerable fauna collections. N.G. Kolov made the map of ungulates’ spreading on the territory of the Reservation. In 1940-1941 on the stuff of the Reservation’s scientific section were zoologists N.G. Kolov, B.F. Belishev, botanist A.I. Semenova, geobotanist L.N. Tyulina, geomorphologists A.M. Zurkan and N.P. Ladokhin. The started war interrupted the scientific reasearches. In 1948 A.M. Zurkan and N.P. Ladokhin published “The Essay on the Local Climate of the Barguzin Reservation”. In 1950 N.P. Ladokhin made the geomorphological sketch of the Bargusin Reservation’s territory. A.M. Zurkan held the barometrical research of the area and the sight-estimated survey, the outcome of which resulted in maps of many river valleys of the Reservation. B.F. Belishev, a zoologist, who worked at the Barguzin Reservation in 1940-1941, processed the archival materials on sable and published them in 1950. He held the mass ringing of the white-winged crossbills, he gathered a great collection of dragon flies, and jointly with T.N. Gagina he prepared a report on the fauna of dragon flies of the Bikal region. L.N. Tyulina, a prominent geobotanist and forester, who worked at the Reservation from 1939 to 1944, having passed many difficult routes, did the geobotanical investigation of the Reservation’s territory, made the great collections of the superior plants, and also of mosses and lichens. The works by L.N. Tyulina are characteristic of plenty of factual material, scrupulous precision of detail description, the in-depth analysis while considering a problem. Her research covered a vast territory and various vegetation formations from larch woods at the eastern and western banks of Baikal to Alpine medows and waste lands of the Barguzin and the Baikal mountain ranges. The range of her interests also included the problems of plants’ origin. L.N. Tyulina is the author of a row of serious monographies (1976, 1982, etc.). Zealously devoted to science, she distinguished herself with a remarkable creative longevity and she cept on working on the problem of geobotanical mapping even being older than 80. From the year 1951 to 1955 at the Reservation there worked J.B. Bayevsky, who studied the sable’s embryology issues. The results of the researches by N.M. Bayevskaya, who, from the year 1949-54, studied the forage resources of the Barguzin sable, remained mostly as manuscripts. The brief summary of her works was published in 1960 by O.K. Gusev. From 1953 to 1957 the research of sable was being done at the Reservation by O.K. Gusev. He figured out the distance of the daily run, size of the hunting lot, the manner of daily activity and winter nutrition, the manner of behaviour and other important features of sable’s ecology. A significant part of O.K. Gusev’s work was devoted to ornitological research, there are also reports on the invertebrate of the Baikal region. A row of his further works is devoted to the issues of protection of the Baikal nature (O.K. Gusev, 1986 and other).
S.K. Ustinov, who worked at the Reservation from 1956 to 1959, researched the eclology of the ungulate animals (especially of elc and kabarga) and the brown bear. Zoologist K.P. Filonov, while working at the Reservation from 1955 to 1962, studied mostly the winter ornithofauna, birds’ migration, and the ecology og some kinds of mammals. Botanist V.M. Kaplin, who worked at the Reservation from 1957 to 1962, was engaged in floristics. He published the list of the Reservation’s plants, where he summarized, along his own materials, the extansive gatherings by L.N. Tyulina and other researchers. S.P. Kirpichyov from the year 1955 to 1963 studied the heath-cock. He worked out the methods of keeping and breeding of capercailyes in captivity. From 1962 to 1970 zoologist V.P. Zharov studied the vertebrals’ fauna of the Alpine areas of the Barguzin range. A row of his articles conserns the ecology of the Marmota camschatica Pal. In 1964-1970 geobotanist L.P. Nikolayeva and forester A.I. Tkachenko studied the phytocynosis’ structure and productivity at the vertical profile. The major object of observation were the various kinds of cedar forests. From 1971 to 1975 the study of the Reservation’s flora was being done by botanist V.N. Siplivinsky, who wrote a series of articles on flora of Alpine areas and considerably supplemented the list of the Reservation’s plants (1967, 1967a). In 1972-1977 the research in êàðèîñèñòåìàòèêà of supreme plants in the Baikal region was done by V.A. Belyayeva. In 1972-1977 ornithologist K.G. Belyayev successfully carried out marking of the passerines, which helped to enlarge the list of birds in the Reservation. The ornithological research was continued by A.V. Feodorov, who concentrated his attention on the birds of Alpine areas. Ornithologist A.A. Ananin (being the director assistant on scientific work) studied the migration, dynamics of quantity of different kinds of birds. Zoologist A.I. Krivohizhin from year 1971 to 1975 studied the ecology of the ungulate and the bear at the north-east bank of Baikal. Botanist M.A. Feodorova, while studing fythofenology, published a series of reports on seasonal development of some kinds of plants. In 1989 together with N.I. Troitskaya she published a summary on the flora of vascular plants of the Reservation. Geobotanist N.I. Troitskaya, while studing the vegetation associations of the Reservations, paid special attention to the fythocitosises of the thermal areas. Her participating in making the flora inventory gave her an opporunity to enlarge the list of species of the Barguzin Reservation and to work out the data base on the species composition of the vascular plants in the Reservation. Enthomologist T.L. Ananina made the inventory of the arthropoda fauna, and she also did the calculation of quantity of various groups of insects. Biologist I.I. Alexandrova participated in observations on monitoring of the external environment in the Reservation area, paying special attention to the lichenoflora, as one of the most sensitive pollution indicators. Biogeographer M.I. Belkevich for some short time did the floristic, fythonotic and resource examinations of the upper Kabanya river, she was determining the spreading and the stock of the basic officinal herbs. Biologist T.A. Buyandukova continuously worked on plants’ fenology alongside with doing the microclimatic observations on the “Nature’s Chronicles” program. Zoologist Y.A. Darizhapov was the first to find Hynobius keyserlingi Dyb. et Godl. on the territory of the Reserve, he also did the calculations of the gerpetofauna. He also was the one to be doing the many-years winter calculations of the game mammals and the observations over the ungulates.
A very important and practically valuably work was done in 1959-1960 by soil scientists A.S. Martinova and B.P. Martinov, and as a result a report on soils of the Reservation appeared. In the early 70s V.G. Koltsova and the co-authors followed the dynamics of plants development during the last 8.000 years on the basis of ñïîðîïûëüöåâîãî è ðàäèîóãëåðîäíîãî analysis of samples from peat-bog in Davsha river valley. Some groups of mushrooms and piculiarities of their spreading over the Reservation’s territory were studied by E.L. Nezdoiminova (ÁÈÍ ÐÀÍ). M.T. Sternberge (Latvia) found a number of new species of spiders in the Reservation. By 1996 mostly by his efforts in the fauna of arachnida in the Reservation 106 species were marked. In 1996 the head scientific worker of the Central Siberian botanical gardens N.N. Lastchinsky (junior) continued the geobotanical researches at the Reservation. Together with the Reservation workers N.I. Troitskaya and Y.A. Darizhapov he was working out the ecofloristic classification of the vegetation of all the Barguzin range vertical belts. As a result N.N. Lastchinsky created the legend to the geobotanic map of the Reservation, that included the diagnostic tables and keys for determining the most typical associations. Starting in 1988 for the next four years reservoirs and marshes of the Reservation were examined by algologist A.B. Bochka (Kharkov University). She revealed 1244 species of water-weeds, among them 39 new to Russia, and 52 new to the East Siberia. From 1988 the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology of Roshydromet and RSA constantly controll the state and level of environmental pollution. The materials for those researches are provided by the station of background monitoring in Davsha settlement and the scientific workers of the Reservation. The Limnology Institute of the SB RSA from the year 1990 is systimatically gathering samples for the hydrochemical and hydrobiological researches at the Reservation’s aquatorium. The Institute specialists also examined the chemical composition of the aerosol and atmospheric presipitations in the Baikal area and studied the changes of the Baikal level through out pleistocene. In 1991 Polish ornithologists participated in making the birds inventory at the Reservation. The partnership with French scientists was also established. In 1996 the workers of the Microbiology Instsitute of RSA continued the research of the biological variety of the micro organisms at the Reservation’s thermal waters. At the same time the Geochemistry Institute of SB RSA lead the works on determining the content of dioxines in different natural environments, and the workers of the Biology Institute of SB RAS from Buryatia studied the resources of the medical herbs at the Reservation’s biospheric ground. In the course of time the interest to Baikal and the Reservation, as the unique natural objects, doesn’t weaken and attracts a great number of scientists and public. The Monitoring Researches at the Barguzin Reservation. The Present State of the Ecosystems The antropogenic influence on the Reserve’s ecosystems in the past was expressed mainly in the barbaric extermination of sable. Among other animals the Baikal nerpa was badly harmed. As the result of excessive hunt at the upper parts of many rivers the settlements of Marmota camschatica Pal. depleted or completely disappeared. Among the ungulate the quantity of Cervus elaphrus L. è Moshus moschiferus L. considerably reduced. Bears were hunted for, too. Other game animals were hunted for mostly during sable hunts. Forest felling wasn’t of a large scale and covered only the bank side area. Forest fires did the maximum harm to the taiga, which were not fought. Forest fires happened even after the Nation Monument was established. The greatest forest fires were registered in 1943-1944, when the entire area of the Reservation was 570.879 hectares, while the forester staff was not enough. In the firs decades after the Reserve was established, the quantity of all the species, harmed by the excessive hunting, was restored and at present time it is being regulated by the natural course of the nature’s processes. The five species of mammals, they are sable, reindeer and stag deer, brown bear and Marmota camschatica Pal., have always been the most valuable representatives of the Reservation’s fauna. This fact makes us to consider them more attentively. At the moment of the Barguzin Reserv’s foundation on the territory of 200.000 hectares (from Bolshoy Chivirkui river to Tarkulik river) there were about of 40 sables. By 1938-1940 sable inhabited all the forests of the Barguzin Reservation and reached the Barguzin valley. By 1958 there were about 500 sables in the Reservation (Gusev, 1966), by 1962 – there were 700-800 of them. At the present time the quantity of sables in the Reservation reached the limit and now flactuates depending on the year conditions from 800 to 1200 animals. Stag deer, or izyubr (Cervus elaphrus), at the time of the Barguzin Reserve organization was quite numerous in the Podlemorye area, and was met in the valleys of all the large rivers. After the elk came into the area east-north of Baikal, the quantity of the stag deer started to reduce. Obviously, the elk became a serious rival of the stag deer in conditions of the Barguzin Reserve. The quantity of the brown bear in the area north-east of Baikal is not that high in comparison with Kamchatka or Primorye Territory. Until 1993 on the entire territory of the Reservation there were about 100 bears. Among the genuine and interesting animals of the Baikal region there is the Marmota camschatica Pal. In the Barguzin Reserve it settles at the south-western border of its area and is represented by it’s comparatively small subspecies (Marmota camtschatica bungei Kastsch.). The marmot is widely spread at the Barguzin mountain range and usually prefers the lower border of steep mountainside valleys in the Alpine and Subalpine belts. In 1954 a new species enlarged the number of mammalian fauna. Ondatra, having acclimatized in the Barguzin river valley, appeared in the Reservation. However the size of area, suitable for ondatra’s habitation turned out to be too limited here. In the last decades the list of birds, nesting in the Reservation enlarged a bit. The nestings of lapwing, hoopoe, gray and ordinary starling were marked. For lapwing, the spread of its area to the north is marked all over Siberia.
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Before the
Reservation was organized, there was no systimatic study of the nature complex of that
region, and the information in disposal was quite scant and fragmentary.
The
start to the in-depth study of the Reservation’s territory was made by G.G.
Doppelmeier’s expedition (1914-1915). The extensive materials of the expedition,
including mapping, physico-geographical description of the area, the description of the
flora and fauna, of the piculiarities of the sable hunt, population’s mode of life, were
published in 1926 in the book “Sable Hunt at the North-East Bank of Baikal”.
From
the moment the Reservation was organized and until year 1933 the materials concerning
sable hunt and the issues of sable’s breeding in captivity were being gethered by K.A.
Zabelin, who has continuously been the head of the operational section at the Reservation.
From
1930 to 1933 the works on the sable’s ecology study were led by P.P. Tarasov; they are
gathered in the manuscript “Materials on the Barguzin Sable Study”. The data of P.P.
Tarasov’s research were partly published by V.P. Favorsky. (1935)
From 1960 to 1962 the topic
“The Factors Determinig the Dynamics of Sable’s Quantity” was developed by N.G.
Skryabin. He was the first to make the absolute calculation of sable species on a vast
territory. But the major object of N.G. Skryabin’s research were the Baikal waterflow,
which were described afterwards in his monography (Skryabin, 1975). In 1962-1965 the work
on sable was being done by V.P. Zharov, at the final stage Y.M. Chernikin joined. In the
last decades the study of sable’s ecology is held by him in the way of catching and mass
marking of the species. Having about 460 sable species marked and the numerous repeated
catches gave the material on various aspects of sable’s ecology and byology.
During the last few decades on the territory of the Reservation
there are researchers from various scientific organizations continually working. In 1970s
at the Reservation there existed a stationary branch of the Siberian Branch of Russia’s
Academy of Science’s Limnology Institute. Those researches resulted in series of
publications, among which the works by V.N. Molozhnikov should be marked (1975, 1986).