Botanical and geographycal diversity of the nature reserves of the Amur Region (Russia)

Abstract

There are 3 state nature reserves on the territory of the Amur Region, Zeya, Nora and Khingan. Medium-scale (M 1:300000) vegetation maps of the reserves were made to analyze the geographical features of vegetation. The maps have a common legend, which is constructed according to the zonal-typological principle. It contains 43 names of mapped polygons. We assessed the environmental factors according to Landolt’s scales. Vegetation of plains occupies 61 % of the total area of the reserves, vegetation of mountains and hills 39 %. Boreal vegetation covers 68 % of the total area of the reserves, nemoral vegetation 7 %, alpine and subalpine vegetation 2 %, and intrazonal vegetation 23 %. Alpine and subalpine vegetation is found only in the Zeya Reserve. Temperate and intrazonal vegetation occupies the largest areas in the Khingan Reserve: 99 and 60 %, respectively. The share of boreal vegetation in the Zeya Reserve is 70 %, in the Nora Reserve 80 %. In the regional aspect, the representation of vegetation of Amur Region in nature reserves is very small, therefore additional measures for vegetation conservation at regional scale is required.