Екатерина Ивановна Рачковская (к юбилею исследователя растительности Казахстана, Средней и Центральной Азии)

Abstract

On September 17, 2017 Ekaterina I. Rachkovskaya has celebrated her 90-year anniversary. She is the well-known researcher and expert of Asian steppe and desert vegetation. Her field routes cover vast areas of the inner part of Eurasian continent: Kazakhstan, Middle Asia, Mongolia, China. The scientific interests of E. I. are manifold — vegetation mapping and subdivision, botanical geography, structure of vegetation cover, ecology, etc. In the process of making maps and monographs describing the vegetation of large areas, E. I. Rachkovskaya united researchers from different regions and institutions, so most of her publications are in collaboration with other scientists. The main stages of her scientific pathway: 1954–1955 — study of the Northern Kazakhstan steppes with the aim of making vegetation map and natural subdivision (Karta…, 1960; Isachenko, Rachkovskaya, 1961). 1957–1968 — participation in Biocomplex expedition of the Academy of sciences of the USSR in Central Kazakhstan (Biokompleksnye…, 1969, 1976). 1964–1966, 1968 — the work in East-Kazakhstan cartographic expedition of Komarov Botanical Institute (Karamysheva, Rachkovskaya, 1973, 1975). 1971–1990 — the work in Soviet-Mongolian complex biological expedition of the Academy of sciences of the USSR and Academy of sciences of the Mongolian People Republic (Rachkovskaya, 1993; Karta …, 1995). 1976–1989 — Turanian cartographic expedition of Komarov Botanical Institute (Vegetation map…, 1995; Rachkovskaya, Khramtsov,2000; Botanical …, 2003). Since 1985 — the work in Kazakhstan (Vegetation …, 2010; Botanical-geographical …, 2010). E. I. Rachkovskaya has published about 200 papers, monographs and maps (list of publications see in: Volkova et al., 2007). Unique relevés of the Kazakhstan steppes made by E. I. in the mid of the last century are widely used at present (Korolyuk, 2017). She continuous to publish her data in the journal “Vegetation of Russia” (Rachkovskaya, 2016) and in “Geobotanical mapping”.